Kristol on the White House surge debate here:

Let me be clear: The president ordered the “surge,” which only recently came to full strength and whose major operation has been going on for less than a month. If he does not give it a chance to work, he will be properly viewed as a feckless, irresolute president, incapable of seeing his own strategy through a couple of months of controversy before abandoning it. He will have asked our soldiers to go on the offensive, assuming greater risk of casualties–and then, even though the offensive is working better than expected, will have pulled the plug on their efforts.
Indeed, the White House is living in a fool’s paradise if they imagine that “compromising” now and in this way buys them anything. Even the New York Times editorial page has abandoned the pretence that its preferred strategy will lead to anything other than catastrophe in Iraq, and in the very near term. If the president gives in now, he will not be credited with a statesmanlike compromise. He will be lambasted by the left for fighting a bad war, and by the right for fighting it badly, recommitting us to the fight, and then losing it. The remainder of his term will be mired in congressional investigations as the waters fill with blood and the sharks go in for the kill. The Democrats will be emboldened to press him on every front, especially since Iraq is virtually the only position he’s actually been defending. Lame duck does not even begin to describe where President Bush will be if he does this.