Do Dems have a plan for Iraq? We know what the media keeps saying, contrary to the truth.
Who will replace Rummy? How can we be so blase as to recommend firing a guy who's been there from the beginning?
Who can we replace this Greatest SecDef Ever abject failure with at such a critical time?
With someone who has been to Iraq and tried to achieve the impossible goals given to our military leaders firsthand. Major General John Batiste - an Iraq II vet who has the rank, who has new ideas, and who's gone toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld. Batiste was on Countdown in October:
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN BATISTE (RETIRED), U.S. ARMY on
Countdown:
[T]he strategy from the very beginning never anticipated or resourced the transition from war fighting, to peace enforcement, to building the peace.
So we lost a narrow window of opportunity. We never regained the initiative.
[W]e need to change course, we need to fall in on a new strategy to be successful with what we started in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With all due respect for Donald Rumsfeld, we went into this war with absolutely the wrong plan.
We didn`t plan for it, and we`re suffering today.
We need a new strategy.
We do that by, one, designating the main effort. Is it Afghanistan, or is it Iraq?
We rethink what we`re doing with the Iraqi security forces.
We are in no way putting the resources into that effort as we should and could.
We need to mobilize this country in a serious way, put it on a war footing, mobilize the industrial base.
We need to get serious about discussions with our friends and enemies in the region.
Why don`t we have an ambassador in Syria?
Wow. So many questions from the General. So few answers. There was so much incredible information in the course of these few minutes -- so much straight talk -- so much truth -- that I had to split the text up to make sure the points made by Batiste were clear.
Bottom line: Bush and Rummy failed to act and react in a timely manner that has left our nation less safe and our troops in an out of control shooting gallery. When the press asks Democrats what their plan is for Iraq, the first name out of their mouths should be John Batiste.