Responsible Challengers To Do List

The Responsible Challengers plan to end the war in Iraq is a well-conceived document, very clearly written that describes the current situation in Iraq, an achievable end state, US actions that can be taken to achieve that end state, and policy changes to prevent a recurrence of an imperialist war like the occupation of Iraq.

It was written under the aegis of Darcy Burner with a team of authors. Among those credited are four DoD types including Iraq Transition Commander Major General Paul Eaton and Lawrence Korb, Asst SecDef in the Reagan administration. It has been endorsed by over 50 challengers, the first time in my memory that a Congressional Caucus has been formed before an election.

One of the good things about the plan is that the last piece--the "avoid this disaster in the future" part has elements that we can get started on now. These include:

Reduce reliance on private militias
Fund veterans health care
The New GI Bill
Establish oversight on contractors

In all of these cases, the document points to existing legislative proposals. Thanks to a citizen action by TrueMajority.org, most US Representatives received a copy of the plan on May 1st, fifth anniversary of Mission Accomplished. It would do no harm to call your US Rep and ask him or her if the document has been reviewed.

The political as well as the practical benefits of pursuing this legislation now should be obvious. It allows Democrats to attack the "support the troops" and "government waste" talking points that Republicans meretriciously traffic in.


I'll be talking about the plan with Darcy and mcjoan of Dkos tomorrow evening at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern at my weekly interview program, Virtually Speaking which will be simulcast on BlogTalkRadio.