Republicans weak on planning.

I'm only going to write letters to the paper about the Fairness Doctrine (which I will talk about more later), so here's one I tried to get in a week or two ago that didn't fly with the editor.

REPUBLICANS WEAK ON PLANNING

To quote former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you [want]." This is a true statement, but I think Rumsfeld and the rest of the war hawks missed its implications. You only go to war if the army you have can achieve preset victory conditions.

If clear victory conditions had been set when we went to war in 2003, I have no doubt that our troops would have achieved them. But the point of this war has been as deceptive and unclear as its justification. Conservative apologists try to rationalize around every fact, but they can't obscure the poor planning behind this war any longer.

Planning is what wins wars, not rhetoric. And I hear a lot of rhetoric on the right about "victory" and "winning," but, by their actions, conservatives and their Republican representatives have shown the American people that they never had the competence to take this nation to war. That is why the preferred Republican course of action now is to do nothing. What is more ineffectual and weak than refusing to change to meet the circumstances?

Our sons and daughters are being sacrificed for no good reason, and the message from President Bush and his supporters is clear: If you don't like it, shut up and sit by while we let even more soldiers die. Well, I think that's unreasonable and, frankly, disgraceful.