The most likely D candidates of today will not end the war because if s/he hasn't done anything to end it before then and it is still raging, s/he will not win the nomination. I don't care how much coin s/he has for a campaign. S/he may even do exceedingly well in the primaries but s/he will not be the D nominee for President.
In truth, there is a chance that by that time rolls around things may have been improved dramatically in Iraq. There will still be no WMD found. AQ will still be hanging around plucking us off as they are able. I/P will still not be solved. But, the vast majority of those doing the fighting today, i.e., the Iraqis, may come up against a local movement that forces them out, or they may simply exhaust themselves and reach some peaceable consensus. We may be able to renew their oil industry, rebuild schools, ensure their public infrastructure, get hospitals modernized and running, have a government that knows what it is doing and have a local police force that is doing it's job. In short, by the end of 2008, everything may be just beautiful and the GOP will tout their victory to the high heavens and may use it to launch themselves into the WH with another hawk.
Or, the D May-24-capitulation candidate may be able to take it at that point, i.e., relentless glorification propaganda will secure the loss of antiwar candidate. And, s/he won't pull us out then because it will be something of a hallmark to that person's dedication over the previous years and the person can use it to hawk their support of an action that was aimed at bringing freedom from Hussein and a democratic stronghold in the Muslim world.
In any event, the Iraqis may by then have their modern, functioning democracy. Don't snort... it's possible.
And, you know what? We will still be royally fucked because we will have learned nothing. Americans are a fickle bunch. If things are turning out over there by then you can bet your sweet ass that it will be propagandized to death and the general public will buy into it and go into patriotic fervor mode again with calls for a march into Tehran, or glorious war movies, or ticker-tape parades and kids dressed up in uniforms for their July 4th parades (interesting that a slang term in the Balkans for little boys is "one for the army") praising the high heavens about how sanctified we all must be as Americans (while the rest of the world reaches for a bucket since they know too well what it means when this nation has its flag-waving swells).
Never mind that it was lies from the Presidential administration that turned us on to that war. Never mind that it was deception that encouraged Congress to support it. Never mind that it was something in the plans from Day 1 and that they had to fire professionals to ensure the propaganda was played appropriately. Never mind that they abused and ignored intelligence officials to get the information they wanted out to the public to support their case. Never mind that they outed an intelligence official and blew countless networks which were protecting us. Never mind that they so badly mismanaged the war from the very beginning. Never mind that they insisted on lying about the costs, kept it off the books, and passed much of that cost onto our kids and grandkids. Never mind that we so severely damaged our international reputation on human rights that we may never recover. Never mind that their colleagues, appointees, friends, allies, and cronies profited immensely from a war and used that money to propagandize for its continuance. Never mind that they insisted they never be held accountable for any of their statements or plans.
And...
Never mind the Americans who have had to bury so many loved ones due to this ill-conceived, unnecessary conflict.
Never mind those people in other nations who have had to bury loved ones as their leaders sent them off to join the coalition.
Never mind the Iraqis who had to flee their homes.
Never mind the Iraqis who had to bury their own.
Never mind the pictures of bloody children we have seen.
Never mind those diseased from our inability to secure clean water or uninterrupted power to the hospitals.
Never mind those missing legs, arms, skin, hair, teeth, functionality due to their war wounds.
Never mind those abroad who seethe so deeply at our injustice that they very well may be our next terrorist attack.
Never mind the fact that no one in a position of true authority was held responsible for any of the above.
No.
If it's still going badly, we will get an anti-war president who will pull the plug. It may be too late by then to ask for retribution to past leaders as the press will scream about the need to move forward and people will say they're tired of it. All in all, we may be in such a deep pickle on so many fronts (economic, energy, environmental, fiscal, health, crime, etc.) that we may not have the time or energy to call to account anyone responsible for the mess. And, we may have so many returnees on Capitol Hill who were part of the capitulation and continuation that they have a vested interested in NOT re-opening these wounds.
If it's going much better, we will get an apologist and those calling for measures to ensure that something like this never happens again will be ignored by D leaders, lampooned by the right-leaning media, and derided as hysterical, peacenik, blame-America firsters.
So, thank you, Mr. Bush. And, thank you Democratic '?leadership?'. Thank you, all, for making sure that we never have to learn a painful lesson.