I don't know about you but I grew weary of John Kerry's claim to have a "plan" for this and that during the most recent elections. Kerry said on numerous occasions that he had a plan but when pressed for details, his reaction was to tell people to visit his web site. I went to the site and found absolutely nothing there. I corresponded with those running the site to inquire as to where I could find a plan for this and that but their response was something like "it is on the site." Now I have been using some pretty advanced means of searching for web content for a very long time. I grew up using keyword searches via Lexis Nexis and Westlaw long before searching became a way of life for people using the internet. I am able to find all sorts of content using advanced features of search engines and via other means. I can tell you that without a doubt, there were no plans. John Kerry was using "I have a plan - It's on my web site" as a means to convince those who would not go look for it that he had all sorts of plans. He was lying in order to persuade a few voters that he did, indeed, have serious plans which were better than the other guy's. Yesterday I received an e-mail from the Libertarian party for whom I have a significant amount of respect. They were touting their plan for success in Iraq. I visited the site the e-mail spoke of and I can tell you they do have a plan. But I was disappointed in it.

The Libertarian party plan for success in Iraq is described in the e-mail I received as a "thoroughly researched strategy" which "establishes a timeline for withdrawal, along with future assurances for the people of Iraq that will empower them with the resources necessary for their nation’s future success." The document begins by saying, "Regardless of an individual's stance on the initial invasion of Iraq ..." Yet the bulk of the words contained in the document consist of criticisms of the initial invasion and very little is dedicated to an actual plan for success. The basic gist of this "thoroughly researched plan" is the insurgency is mostly Iraqis, not foreign fighters or baathists; we should train Iraqis to handle the insurgency and begin troop withdrawals at a rate of 11,600 U.S. soldiers per month.

There is nothing in the plan which indicates the "research" comes from anywhere other than newspaper stories. Some of the "facts" contained in it are dubious at best. I won't go into them because my claims are probably as dubious as theirs but the point here is that they do not necessarily have the facts straight to begin with and the "plan" is not really much different than what the administration has been saying. The only thing new here is a specific timeline for withdrawal. I'm afraid that is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Basically the situation in Iraq is probably of our own making. We beat the other guy in the war part of this thing but left all th Saddam-supporting men free in the population. They had weapons squirreled away and now they are using them. In WWII, we killed or incarcerated the enemy because their were millions and millions of soldiers on each side. There was infrastructure for detaining enemy combatants. In Iraq we were not able to do that because we did not want to send half a million or more fighting men and support personnel to do the job. There were political reasons for that approach which we can all debate until an asteroid crashes into the Earth and wipes us out. But we did what we did and now we have the situation we have.

Right now, there is this violence which is probably partly insurgency of disgruntled Iraqis who want the U.S. out, partly foreign fundamentalist Muslim fighters looking to kill the infidel - us, and partly those who have ruled the country under an iron-fist for decades and now risk losing all power. The situation is chaotic. The other guy (or guys) has a very strong will and is in this thing for the duration. How would you feel if some guy moved into your house and began controlling you? You would most likely try to stay out of his way as much as possible, hope to your creator that one day he would move out - the sooner the better, and you would do whatever subtle things you could do to make him feel uncomfortable about living there. That is part of what is going on Iraq. But before we can pickup our toys and go home, we are morally obliged to get the country into some peaceful equilibrium before we leave. We must leave as the Iraq police and military are formed. We must be convinced that they are capable of handling any remaining insurgency before we go.

Not only are we morally obliged to create a stable situation in Iraq, it is absolutely essential to our country's safety that we not pick up and leave before things are settled. We cannot afford to leave fertile ground for a new Taliban ruled Afghanistan. We must make this place a successful democracy with economic prosperity which is not anti-U.S. or pro bin Laden. But that is really what is fueling the insurgency. Muslim countries have lived under totalitarianism for far longer than any soviet-bloc country ever did. Their historical rule is very similar to the Nazi form of government. Even the most peaceful Islamic nation more closely resembles Nazi Germany than it does the current Germany, or U.S., or even current Russia. There are literally millions of people who want democracy to fail. Actually, they don't want it to fail, they absolutely need it to fail. They have created their entire life around the totalitarian regime of Saddam. They cannot succeed in a democracy. They are willing to expend their lives in order to bring back the baathists.

So we are in this situation that resembles Vietnam in as much as we are spending huge amounts to sit a government and train it to police its population and put down an insurgency. It also resembles Vietnam by the elements which are necessary to win it. We cannot succeed in Iraq without the people of the country having the will to succeed. They are the ones who must be the soldiers and police who create and maintain order and stability. They must have the will. Without will there is no way to succeed at anything. But before we can ask them to have the will to succeed, we must have it ourselves.

More energy in this country is spent questioning the sitting administration than is spent on anything else. The true liberals like Move On do it. The Democratic party does it. The liberal media institutions do it. This is the problem specific to the United States in the years since Vietnam. We do not have the collective will to do anything. We really do not have the will to even defend this country if it means incarcerating Taliban fighters and using heavy metal music to extract information. We do not have the will to attack a dictator who paid huge sums to anyone whose son would strap a bomb to himself in order to kill Israelis. We do not even have the will to be patient at airport security checkpoints. We are left with only the will to act in our own financial and political self-interest. For that sin we are most assuredly doomed.