People in certain circles continue to argue that the President’s opponents have no plan, that all they can do is nitpick what the President has done. Nick Kristof has some excellent suggestions on what could be done differently starting today:

• Deploy 25,000 additional troops in Iraq for at least a few months to try to achieve a secure transition.

• Stick to the June 30 transition and give the Iraqis full sovereignty. The administration’s plan to convey only what it calls “limited sovereignty” is a mistake, for it risks inflaming Iraqi nationalism. The only hope of getting Iraqis to behave responsibly is to give them responsibility.

• Count to one googolplex before rushing into Falluja and Najaf to wipe out the resistance. Most Iraqis know that Moktada al-Sadr is a hotheaded blowhard. But nationalism leads Iraqis to rally around anyone we go after. We have already made Mr. Sadr a hero by closing his newspaper, and our best hope for destroying him is to leave him alone, let Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani discredit him and let the shadowy Thulfiqar Army carve up his Mahdi militia.

• Dump Ahmad Chalabi and other carpetbaggers. They are American stooges who undermine the legitimacy of any government they are in. The Dawa and Sciri religious parties may agree with us less, but they have genuine support and can be the building blocks of a transitional Iraqi government. If we give them real authority, there will be a convergence of interest: Dawa and Sciri want a stable Iraq even more than we do.

• Disentangle ourselves from Ariel Sharon, that bloodstained figure embraced by President Bush as “a man of peace.” By assassinating Hamas leaders and threatening to do the same to Yasir Arafat, Mr. Sharon is undermining our efforts in Iraq. Mr. Bush squandered our legitimacy in Iraq when he and Mr. Sharon chummily gave away Palestinian rights this month.

• Bring back the most professional and least political Baathist generals. Iraq’s most desperate need now is for security, and we need them.

Of course, any of these efforts would have to include at least a tacit admission that we are on the wrong path in Iraq. Don’t hold your breath.

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