Democrats should not only offer a plan for the War in Iraq but also...

[kentuck]

for the "war on terror" in general. Bush and the Repubs say that Iraq is the frontline on the war on terror. However, there were no terrorists to mention in Iraq when our country preemptively invaded and dismantled their government and their military. Few can reasonably argue that Iraq is better off today or that America is better off today.

If the "war in Iraq" is part of the "war on terror", then perhaps it is time to analyze more closely this war that is supposed to last for generations. They brag that there has not been a terrorist attack since 9/11. However, there is no evidence that I know of that there were plans for further attacks? Yet, we are supposed to believe that there is this enemy out there that is so strong and so dangerous that we must live the rest of our lives in fear and paranoia. I think that is a totally irrational reaction.

That is not to say that there are not any people that would wish to do us harm. No doubt, from this present "war on terror", there are probably many more now than on 9/11. I think it is safe to say that we have more enemies now than then. But, we should not surrender up our hard-fought freedoms and liberties just because George W Bush and Dick Cheney say so. Haven't we seen enough to take everything they say with a grain of salt?

Yes, we should fight the "war on terror" in a smarter and better way. We should use our intelligence and our allies to follow the "terrorists" and to capture them when possible. Surely there is a bettter way??

[karynnj]

1. I think several already did

I KNOW that Kerry did - and spoke of it in both 2004 and updated it in his Real Security speech this last September. He and Feingold submitted a bill on Afghanistan as part of that - both last year and this year.

I assume everyone running for Prsident will have a plan - and the nominee's plan WILL become the Democratic plan in 2008. I think the Democrats - not wanting to give Kerry any lift - made a huge mistake in not standing behind his plan for the last 2 years - even as people like George Will pointed out that he was right.

[Daylin Byak]

2. Yes the Democrats do have plans for Iraq

But here's the problem the party as a whole dosen't have a plan for Iraq. You see in my opinion I see when Republican politicans and voters say the Democrats have no plan for Iraq cause the party as a whole have not decided on one plan to unite on, the plans have came from indivisual Dems like Murtha or Kerry but not Dems as a whole have not jumped on either plan.

So yes we do have a plan for sucess it just isn't backed by the entire party.

[karynnj]

3. The party out of power is very unlikely to have one policy on anything

nor should they.

I thought your first post dealt with also having a WoT plan. (The reason that I thought they should have taken credit for Kerry's ideas - is I think most now agree with the ideas ridiculed in 2004 - and stating this was a Democratic policy and had been since at least 2004 would give us the standing of having a consistent long term position.

Especially now, the Presidential candidates will all have their own plans - even if they are minor variations on each other - so this is the least likely time to get agreement. (Last year, it was remarkable that two (then) Presidential contenders worked to put their ideas together. The problem was there was no way to combine their views and those of Biden or Hillary - without getting a no real content vague position that has as much specificity as a mission statement.)