"Ex-Republican" On Winning In Iraq

James Webb, running as a Democrat in Virginia against incumbent Senator George Allen, is a former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan.  He gave the Democratic Saturday morning radio address, and insists that the only way to win in Iraq is to elect a Democratic congressional majority.

I assumed that this address would provide an answer to Michael Graham's question.  I would be wrong.

"Since 2003, President Bush has laid out nine different plans for victory in Iraq, none of them serious and none of them workable. And most seriously, this incompetence has hindered our ability to fight international terror," Webb said.

[...]

"It gives me no great pleasure today to be saying `I told you so,'" said Webb, whose son, Jimmy, is a Marine on active duty in Iraq. "It pains me as an American that our casualties are again escalating while this president and his followers are still incapable of bringing forward an intelligent, commonsense approach to ending our involvement there."

I see.  So the goal is not to "win," however you define that, but to "[end] our involvement there."  But surely Mr. Webb, a military man, has an idea or two on how to defeat the threat posed by the islamists to the west in their quest for Islamic dominance.

"A Democratic Congress will demand from day one that the president find a real way forward in Iraq. We'll work with the administration and other Republicans to develop a concrete plan, but none of us are ready to settle for empty rhetoric, or the same old unacceptable results," Webb said.

I see.  No plan.  I'm still waiting for a better reason to vote for them than the used car salesman's pitch: "You can trust me."

10/28/06 1820: Michael Scheuer doesn't think the Democrats have an answer to the question, either.  Tongue in cheek, Charles Johnson refers to Webb's thoughts today as the "miracle cure."