Emschwar – the Democratic plan for Iraq is and always has been full international cooperation under a legitimate international body such as the UN (or at the very least NATO). Remember Kerry’s endless “I have a plan” rhetoric. Didn’t work too well.

If Democrats do indeed intend to gain control of those institutions, they need to win elections, and reflexive opposition to every Republican idea is not the way to do that. Most voters are more interested in voting for somebody than against someone else; unless and until Democrats grasp that, they’re not going to gain control of House or Senate. Relentless opposition just makes them come across as whiny and petulant, without any ideas of their own. I’m not necessarily saying they don’t have any (though I’d love to hear a Democrat plan for Iraq that wasn’t “get the hell out of there NOW”), just that if the only message voters hear is “Republicans are doody-heads!”, then they’re not going to be too impressed with the messenger.

So really, the best thing Democrats can do right now is get out of the Republican’s way, and promote their own solution to our problems as a positive thing. Either Republicans will self-destruct (as seems increasingly likely), in which case the Dems come out smelling like roses, or the Dems will convince people that their ideas are better.

I know I personally respond better to “here’s my plan to improve America” vs. “we’re all going to hell in a handbasket, and it’s all their fault!”

It also isn’t Xenophobia to point out Saudia Arabia’s links to 9/11. That is where the money came from; that is where the people came from. Saudia Arabia had implemented and continues to implement a deliberate stategy to not go hard after islamic extremism, so as to not unstabilize the goverment. It would be good if they clean up their act.

The rest of your critique of the Bush administration is based on an understanding of fact I find far divorced from reality; but at this point it is probably useless to rehash stale partisan arguments.

Strangely enough, I have less argument with your critique of the Democratic party. I will say, in their defense, that relentless opposition, if not the best policy, is not the worst policy either. It does serve to slow the enactment of Republican policy, and diminish its scope, and it does help to define and inspire their party. It may not be a winning policy, but it may be a good holding and defense policy until such time as they get their act together, or the times are more propitious. And if in point of fact that Democrats are quite riven on matters of positive policy, it may be intelligent to focus on what unifies them: opposition to Republican policy. I don’t deny there are costs to these tactics, which you state well, but there are benefits, too.