If we withdraw before Iraqi forces are fully prepared, we'll hand the terrorists their first major victory in the war -- not just a successful, devastating attack on the order of 9/11, but a full-blown victory in Iraq.

It would be, in the words of President Bush, a complete "disaster." We would be sending the message that terrorism pays, that the West lacks resolve, isn't serious about the War on Terror and fails to understand the global reach and designs of the enemy.

It would be an invitation to terrorists to redouble their recruitment efforts, to increase their attacks, to stand in the way of any freedom-seeking peoples in the Middle East and elsewhere and to bring the war to America. It would tell terrorists that in lieu of defeating us militarily, they merely need to create enough havoc to wear us down to the point of surrender. It would greatly increase the likelihood that Iraq would become an enormous terrorist training camp dwarfing that of Afghanistan under the Taliban.

These horrifying consequences are why Democrats are so determined not to provide their "plan," so determined to remain off the flow chart.

They tell us such consequences would not be their fault, but President Bush's for attacking Iraq in the first place. Sorry, but Saddam was a serial treaty violator, a gathering threat and exceedingly terrorist-friendly. One of the major reasons the terrorists are fighting so hard to thwart the new Iraq regime is that it is terrorist-unfriendly.

Unless Republicans run a completely incompetent campaign, Democrats should still have an uphill battle in November because they can't afford to have the consequences of their policies exposed to the light of day. They'll do anything they can to remain off the flow chart. It's our job to put them on it.