You're either with America and Jim McDermott, or you're against us. Period.

Want a relevant comparison: try the Philippines after the US "victory" in the Philippine-American War. US troops defeated the Philippine military in a mere three years, and then fought a decade of guerrilla warfare after the war was won. How did we win the guerrilla confict? Taking no prisoners, burning whole villages, concentration camps, torture, and all around repression of the civilian population until the insurgents gave up.

I'm not advocating a return to these tactics, but we should at least be honest with ourselves what "winning Iraq" would mean.

Much like the Iraq and the Middle East in our era, the Philippines played a key role in projecting US power into the Pacific. Simply leaving either would have severe strategic consequences.

Why aren't the Democrats proposing something serious? Here would be my plan:

* Pull our troops out of urban areas and FOBs. Focus intensely on securing desolate border regions and supply routes, where our airpower can be used to achieve total military superiority.

* Start an all out crash scientific and industrial program, on the scale of the Manhattan or Apollo projects, to completely replace all fossil fuels with completely renewable sources within a decade. Pay for it with an across-the-board carbon tax.

Remember, it was Sunnis from Saudi Arabia and Egypt (primarily) that attacked us on 9/11. Let's kick the chair out from under them by making oil, and the Mid East, totally irrelevant to our economy. We're losing playing by the rules right now. Let's change them.