True leadership requires making the hard decisions without benefit of hindsight. And statesmanship demands that you put aside your personal political ambitions in favor of doing the right thing now, which is to support our efforts in establishing democracy and stability in post-war Iraq. Instead, you and your running buddies are essentially advocating that we reward the behavior of those who are massacring Red Cross workers. When you undermine our military effort in that volatile environment you are playing into the terrorists' hands. Have you no conscience?

And how about you, General Wesley Clark? Is the following quote truly your only explanation for your embarrassing turnaround on Iraq? "Right after 9-11, this administration determined to do bait and switch on the American public. President Bush said he was going to get Osama bin Laden, dead or alive. Instead, he went after Saddam Hussein. He doesn't have either one of them today. … But the failure of this administration was not to put the troops in to finish the job against Osama bin Laden. And you know why they didn't do it? They didn't do it because, all along, their plan was to save those troops to go after Saddam Hussein."

General Clark -- I know you think you have to be cute to compete with the other eight men occupying that stage -- but do you really want people to hear you making a statement so utterly disingenuous and absurd on its face? Do you expect even a small fraction of the people to believe that Bush wouldn't have done everything in his power to capture or kill bin Laden? We didn't send our troops into Iraq for a year and a half after we routed the Taliban. Just how far are you willing to go to advance your political career? Perhaps we should ask General Shelton.

The other candidates uttered similar canards, unworthy of anyone seeking the highest office in the land. I just hope they keep on getting their message out often and to as many people as possible.