Micromanage Me, Please

My wife was watching CNN this morning and a fragment of conversation caught my ear. The reporter was talking about the latest Democratic plan for Iraq and was saying that Democrats did not want it to appear that they were "micromanaging" the war. My reaction to this was, "Why the hell not?" It would seem that it is time for someone to start micromanaging this war, and I certainly don't want to leave it to the baboons in the executive branch.

It would seem to me that the Democrats' plan gives the President exactly what he wants, time for the escalation to work its magic. The plan basically says that if certain benchmarks, set by the President, are met then the troops will stay in place and finish the job and then come home. If those benchmarks are not met then the troops start to come home. In other words, if the presence of U.S. forces is accomplishing something they can stay, if their presence is doing nothing then they will leave. If the escalation and the Iraqis decide maybe killing each other isn't the best way to build a stable democracy then all is good. If it doesn't work then its time to cash in our chips and leave the Iraqis to the business of killing each other instead of us.

That may sound callous, but what is the alternative? We have demonstrated that we are unable to stop them from killing each other in ever increasing numbers. They have demonstrated that killing each other is what they really want to do in their heart of hearts. Personally I think we should really crank it up and drop half a million troops into Baghdad and turn this into the full blown occupation that it should have been in the first place. And then we leave those troops in place until the insurgents realize we aren't going anywhere until the killing stops, and we're talking decades here. Of course there is no way on gods green earth that the American people would ever go for the kind of sacrifice required to make that plan happen, so what are the options?

This whole thing is kind of like bringing your car into a mechanic because it won't start. The mechanic/President then proceeds to rotate your tires, re-upholster your seats and replace your windshield, all the while assuring you that he has the problem licked if you just give him one more chance. Which brings us back to the Democratic plan to end the war. With this plan we can say that we gave the President and his Iraqi pals every opportunity to end this thing well. If they fail then we get the heck out and wish them luck. If they succeed then we all drop dead of shock that this bungler actually got something right for once.