Tom,

Our misadventure into Iraq weakened our international standing and impassioned Islamic militants in Pakistan, making it much harder for Musharraf to stand firm with the U.S. among his own countrymen.

Had Bush kept his eye on the ball and focussed his attention on a true international initiative in Afghanistan we might not be still fighting the Taliban five years after 9/11. And we might have dispached OBL and his top cronies a long time ago.

Instead Bush has created an incompetent recipe for tolerating undesirable compromises.

So what should we do now? Well the first thing is to dump the Republicans from Congress who have only perpetuated this travesty in judgment. Perhaps then the checks and balances so essential to effective democracy will be restored. But lets face facts, Bush isn't going to change course. Conditions will continue to deteriorate so long as he is in office. Our only hope is to elect a President who truly understands the use of both diplomatic power and military might.

The prescription for peace in the middle east comes not from naive affectations about manufacturing democracies where they are not truly wanted. The road to peace in the middle east goes through Jerusalem. Solve that problem and OBL becomes irrelevant. If we ever hope to regain the initiative, we must lead the Palestinians and Israelis to the peace table. That must be our first priorrity.

In the meantime, we are stuck in Iraq. Our best strategy is to declare victory and tell the Iraqi government to get its act together and give them a deadline for assuming control of their own country. Then leave. As we depart from Iraq we can then strengthen our military focus on completing the unfinished job in Afghanistan. Put a hundred thousand troops in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border and sweep the Taliban up.