Eugene Robinson makes a mistake many on the left are making in interpreting the election results as a repudiation of the Iraq War and a desire to get out.

the main event is the mandate that midterm voters imposed this month, in no uncertain terms: Find a way out.

This is a common refrain among the anti-war crowd that the mid-term results were a clear message from the public to leave Iraq. The reality, however, is considerably more complicated and far from an endorsement of the get-out-of-Iraq position. If the voters were in "no uncertain terms" voting to get out of Iraq, how come one of the most liberal states in the country, where anti-war sentiment runs very strong, gave a 10-point win to the "pro-war" Independent over the "anti-war" Democrat?

As far as Iraq was concerned the public was rejecting the Bush administration's prosecution of the War these last two years. The majority of the American people were not sending a message of "find a way out," but more likely a message of "find a way to win" because what we're doing isn't working.

The hard part for the White House, the new Democratic Congress and the whole country is what if there isn't a way to win in Iraq? Or put another way, what if the nation simply isn't prepared to support what is necessary to win?

That is why you are hearing more and more calls on the right led essentially saying if we aren't going to fight and make a commitment to win we should just pack up and get out, because it is not right to the young men and women we are asking to put their lives on the line, if the country is just going to pull the plug later next year.

Bill Kristol alluded to the potential withering of GOP support this weekend on FOX News Sunday:

I think Bush has two or three months. If by the state of the union -- I agree with Brit on this -- if by the state of the union, things aren't getting better on the ground or there's not a really plausible change of tactics here at home, I am very worried that political support will crumble; not among Democrats, but among Republicans.

The window for the U.S. is closing on the Iraq battlefront. Unless there is either 1) a change of tactics and a renewed commitment to winning or 2) a substantive improvement in the security status on the ground -- Republican support for the war will crumble some time next year.