So "B" it

Do not forsake me O my darlin'
You made that promise when we wed
Do not forsake me O my darlin'
Although you're grievin', I can't be leavin'
Until I shoot Frank Miller dead

Wait along, wait along
Wait along
Wait along

– “Do Not Forsake Me (The Ballad of High Noon)," words by Ned Washington, music by Dmitri Tiomkin

Okay, here's what I think about what the New York Post calls Bush's "Plan B" for Iraq.

I say Madame Speaker, to hell with no smoking in the Speaker’s Lobby! I say Congress, where do you get off staying home Monday to watch a football game—after the Dems, the new majority party, promised you would right away start actually working for your cushy pay?

I say, get your asses back to work!

Oh yeah, as for "Plan B," I say let's go. Let's go! Clear-hold-build. ‘Hold’ is the key here. Before it was clear-and-leave…and watch any building destroyed by murderous, fanatical thugs. Now it’s clear-hold-build—jointly with Iraqis each step of the way. Seek out and destroy the insurgency and reestablish security side-by-side with Iraqi army and police forces. Rebuild with infusions of Iraqi and US dollars.

And when Iraqi security is standing on its own, we’ll take a hike; maybe go to Kuwait. You know, keep an eye on things.

Let’s go. Let’s brandish that big stick, wink at Iran and Syria and quietly place them on notice: their aiding and abetting of chaos is about to end...by God-awful brute force if necessary.

Prosperity, security and liberty are the death knell to radical Islam. It's that elemental.
–Victor Davis Hanson

Clear-hold-build. Secure Baghdad under the watchful command of Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, onetime commander of the legendary 101st Airborne Division and overseer of the revised counterinsurgency manual.

Lt. Gen. Petraeus has learned his lessons both on the ground and by studying the history of counterinsurgency. Browsing the revised manual, Counterinsurgency, published last month by the Department of the Army, you get a sense of Petraeus’s thinking about the Iraq insurgency and how he plans to address it.

Out the window go these “unsuccessful practices”:

• Overemphasize killing and capturing the enemy rather than securing and engaging the populace.
• Conduct large-scale operations as the norm.
• Concentrate military forces in large bases for protection.
• Focus special forces primarily on raiding.
• Place low priority on assigning quality advisors to host-nation forces.
• Build and train host-nation security forces in the U.S. military’s image.
• Ignore peacetime government processes, including legal procedures.
• Allow open borders, airspace, and coastlines.

And into the mix come these “successful practices”:

• Emphasize intelligence.
• Focus on the population, its needs, and its security.
• Establish and expand secure areas.
• Isolate insurgents from the populace (population control).
• Conduct effective, pervasive, and continuous information operations.
• Provide amnesty and rehabilitation for those willing to support the new government.
• Place host-nation police in the lead with military support as soon as the security situation permits.
• Expand and diversify the host-nation police force.
• Train military forces to conduct counterinsurgency operations.
• Embed quality advisors and special forces with host-nation forces.
• Deny sanctuary to insurgents.
• Encourage strong political and military cooperation and information sharing.
• Secure host-nation borders.
• Protect key infrastructure.

Enough of those “nuanced” critics and their ridiculously simplistic and one-dimensional broadsides against "the surge.” Again, read those bullet points above and learn a little bit about what real counterinsurgency entails. Pretty radical, eh?

The rules of engagement have changed. No more bloody mayhem from Muqtada and the militia boys. No more destructive outside influences. Let’s go! Secure Baghdad and al-Anbar Province. We not only can do it, we must. For the future of Iraq, the Middle East, and the free world.

This is Iraq’s last, best chance. Let’s not blow it. Let's go!