Blogger Andrew Sullivan raises the oft-noted criticism that critics of Bush's handling of Iraq don't offer much of a strategy in return:
What I'm saying, I guess, is that as long as the anti-war critics continue relentless negativism without any constructive alternative, they will soon lose the debate. Americans want to know how to move this war forward, not why we shouldn't have started it in the first place. Right now, the president has the best plan for making this work. What does anyone else have?I'm not sure I agree with Andrew's reasoning. Not that he's wrong about whether anyone has offered a plan better than Bush's (though I have yet to hear of a real plan from Bush as to how we can ever possibly leave), but rather, I disagree with Andrew as to whether Bush's opponent has to offer any plan at all, or at least whether offering a better alternative is a prerequisite for winning our votes.
Simply comparing Bush's plan to Kerry's plan leaves out a rather important element - namely, the fact that Bush got us into this mess in the first place, and the question of HOW he got us into this mess (by either lying or being supremely ignorant of the facts). Those two points are highly relevant in determining who's more qualified to be commander in chief. In my view, Bush has already proven he's not up to the job - by disappearing on September 11, by alienating the allies, by lying (or at least negligently misinforming) the nation about the pretext for going to war, and by his handling of the aftermath. Even if you give Bush "the aftermath" - i.e., you give Bush the fact that anyone would have trouble dealing with the aftermath of the invasion - Bush has already proven he's a bad leader when you look at the rest of the evidence.
Asking us to ignore the fact that Bush got us into this mess is a bit like asking me to go back to a dentist who accidentally cut off my leg while filling a cavity. True, no other dentist has a better plan for reattaching my now-gone leg, but it doesn't mean I'm dumb enough to go back to the same moron who cut it off in the first place. If Bush could lie to us, and quagmire us, once - he can do it again. The man has proven his character, and the character of those he chooses to surround himself with. They like to do things "their way." And we now know that their way doesn't work, and often leaves us worse off than before.
Fool me once, shame on me...
