Supporting the troops means more than saying "support the troops". It means adequately equipping and training them, giving them a plan to win when in a war, and taking care of them when they return. Bush is failing in all of these. But I'll only focus on the second and leave the others for later.

I've read that some applaud not setting a timeline. (Peter mentions the timeline issue here.) That is an irresponisble and losing strategy. If we want to win, we should plan to win and make damn sure that it happens on time. Here are a few things I would have liked Bush to address and some of my naive comments.

- We will need a minimum number of Iraqi soldiers and police trained for independent operations to maintain stability. What is that number? If we don't have it, we will have it within the next week.

- What is a reasonable amount of time to get these troops trained? If we don't know, we will determine this soon. How and by whom will the troops be trained. The UK will be responsible for securing part of the country and they better let us know how many trained personel they will need. A region by region timeframe will be set and we will demand that each region is secure by the set date.

- A real reconstruction team will be set up to promptly began rapid reconstruction projects in secured regions. A timeframe will be set for the completion of all vital projects in conjunction with regional stability. All Halliburton sweetheart no-bid contracts are null. Any corporation who is found to have overcharged or not be performing up to standards will not only lose their contract but be fined severely. We should have a minimum amount of work preformed by Iraqis and other middle eastern countries to provide jobs.

- We will work with the Iraqi government and allow them to set as many meetings and negotiations they feel are necessary and ensure their safety at each of these meetings. No politicians will fear their safety.

- We will set up a reconstruction summit with neighboring countries and push them to secure a portion of their borders. This will mean working intensely and propmtly on Iran and their dangerous nuclear program.

Military Goals: Bush must ensure that we have the right people in place to get each of the above mentioned benchmarks completed. Those not meeting their deadlines must be held accountable. Rumsfeld, Rice and our military leaders must be responsible for coming up with a plan and ensuring each step must be met. Saying we will "stay the course" is not a plan. They don't have to tell us the details, but they should be explicit in tangible goals.

Reconstruction goals: I have a little experience sitting in on city and campus planning sessions. There is a lot of time spent planning the details for any construction. Timeframes and dates are set for planning and construction. Line item costs are not out of the ordinary. It's time Bush let's us know where reconstruction money is being spent. If we require these details for simple city planning tasks, surely we should require this information on the larger scale of Nation reconstruction.

Political goals: We have to trust the Iraqi people to do what's right and stop meddling. I personally trust them to do what's right for them. In fact, my trust in the Iraqi people is precisely why I think Iraq will become strong and stable and why I don't think we'll have to "cut and run".

Of course, specifics change to meet demands but that does not mean we should avoid setting goals. Goals will let other nations know that we aim to win and how we aim to win. Rather than giving insurgents a time to "wait it out", it lets them know we plan to have them irradicated and gives them a day when they should expect to be in custody or dead.