Since one of Kerry’s most familiar criticisms of the administrations is its alledged lack of a “plan” — for entering Iraq, for managing Iraq after victory, for leaving Iraq, for … just about everything — it’s not surprising that he suddenly come up with a plethora of plans himself.
Naturally, since it is an article of faith in the Kerry campaign that Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror (except, of course, for being a “diversion”), it is also not surprising that Kerry has unveiled separate plans for Iraq and for the war on the terror. These plans, as is their wont, are filled to overflowing with “points.”
Iraq, being of minor significance in the Kerry view of the world, rated only four points. Now that Kerry has declared that we should extricate ourselves from Iraq as quickly as possible in order to devote all our undivided, undiverted energies to the war on terror, that plan, unveiled recently at Temple University, has seven points. (A Google search a moment ago turned up 88 hits for Kerry and “seven point plan.”)
Or was it “a six point plan,” as the Washington Post declared in its lead article on page one today?
Call me a skeptic, but my own view is that in war most plans are, well, pointless.
UPDATE
A commenter called my attention to this quote from Eisenhower:
Plans are nothing; planning is everything.
Despite the plethora of “points,” like my commenter I don’t get the feeling that Kerry’s various plans are the product of much planning.
UPDATE UPDATE
Tracy Allen, who first mentioned Eisenhower’s apt quote, sends a better cite for it.
Your post reminded me of Eisenhower’s quote, “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” It seems that Sen. Kerry is telling us he has a plan for everything, but when you really look at what he has to say, you quickly see that there is no planning behind them.