The best proposal

The best Iraq proposal from a major Presidential candidate goes something like this:

Immediately begin a withdrawal of half of our forces from Iraq (assuming a current troop level of roughly 160,000, that would mean a withdrawal of 80,000 - I'm not positive about those numbers, but it makes the ensuing math easy). Start the process of re-forming Iraq into a loose confederacy.

Bring half of those withdrawn troops, or 40,000, back home immediately.

Send the other 40,000 to Afghanistan, to start trying to stabilize the country and fight the ever-resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda. You remember them, right? The ones who actually did attack us? The ones who really are trying to secure weapons of mass destruction and use them against us? Yeah, those guys. They're still in Afghanistan - well, Al Qaeda's probably more headquartered across the border in North Waziristan, in Pakistan - you know, Pakistan, our "ally in the war on terror".

Anyway, in my opinion, that's the best proposal going right now. Want to know the candidate who made that proposal?

Me too.

Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything like that from any of them. Why not? Why isn't anyone talking about the resurgent threat from Al Qaeda, or about a radical re-prioritization of our troop deployments? Presumably because the candidates are too worried about making a strong statement that they might have to defend at some point - that, or they're busy accusing each other of stealing contributors or posing for photographers or whatever.

I think that as soon as one of the Presidential candidates puts forth a proposal like the one I've outlined above - regardless of their party affiliation - he or she would enjoy a real "surge" in the polls.

And hey, if I've missed this from one of the campaigns, somebody point me in the right direction to find it.