While it is true the newly empowered congressional Democrats have not offered a specific plan for the war in Iraq, other than vague statements about funding freezes and troop level caps, at least the strategies are consistent with their primary goal: to end the war as soon as possible. The same cannot be said for the President's (and most Republican's) plan. The President says he is committed to "winning" the war, yet his approach – a small increase of troops – is just a token enhancement of the same, ineffective strategy he has pursued now for over four years. The Vice President viciously mocks the Democrats for offering no credible alternative, but that is only to mask the utter insanity of his own proposal, an endless continuation of what has already failed. If the Republicans truly wanted to win the war, they would offer a plan that at least had the appearance it might work, not one that was discredited almost immediately as "way too little, way too late." One wonders what the goal of such a plan truly is.

From the moment it became clear the President was going to attack Iraq, the limits of America's sacrifice to the effort were set. George W. Bush was going to fight this war on the cheap, and ask very little from most Americans. Except for those in the military or their families, the cost of the war would be kept artificially low, primarily to serve Mr. Bush's political, not military, strategy. He realized then, as now, that Americans would be unwilling to pay much for a war based on half-truths and outright lies. To ask them to endure any real discomfort for a war marginally important to them would be political suicide, much more so than under-equipping a military force too small to do what was asked of them. An honest and committed effort to win this war would, and still does, require a President willing to ask his country for real sacrifice, a President willing to raise the money to pay for it by increasing taxes, and one willing to draft into service the hundreds of thousands of soldiers we would need to fight it.

Mr. Cheney's criticism of the Democrats is correct on one level, though: it is true they are not offering an alternative to the Administration's plan. That is because of a difference in goals, not in the ability to manage a war. While many Democrats are still unwilling to say it publicly, it is apparent that most now believe the war is no longer winnable. What they are doing is laying the groundwork for an ugly, humiliating but crucially important job, one most Republicans are still too cowardly to face. They are preparing the country for the agonizing realization that America has lost a war, and has only just begun to pay for it.

COMMENTS about this article (6)