The war in Iraq has to end. To support our troops, we have to bring them home. But how? That’s been the big question in my mind. Fortunately, 45 Democratic challengers to Congress have come up with a plan. Now they need to sell it. Arianna Huffington has some suggestions about that. In the meantime, we need to spread the word that there is a plan out there that was endorsed by a former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, Dr. Lawrence Korb: “Bringing our troops home is the first, but not the only step that must be taken to ensure a debacle like Iraq never happens again. This plan addresses the root causes that allowed the Bush administration to lead this country into this mess, and sets us in the right direction.”

The Responsible Plan concludes:

The current administration has said it expects to see U.S. combat forces remain in Iraq for another decade or longer. Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nomination, has said that he would be fine with keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years.

We could not disagree more. After five years of occupation, the time has come to end our combat involvement in Iraq. The American people want our troops home, as do most Iraqis. They are right.

The real challenges in Iraq are not military. It is not an appropriate role for our combat troops to referee the continuing sectarian conflict in Iraq, nor is it reasonable to ask them to fabricate a military solution to a problem for which the best solutions are non-military. We do face great challenges in Iraq, but they are political, diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian in nature. They can be solved, but not by the military.

Withdrawing our troops, therefore, is not synonymous with ending our involvement in Iraq. By removing our troops we free up the resources needed to help the Iraqis begin the process of rebuilding their country.

We argue for a major new civil society initiative, public works projects that also provide employment, and localized assistance efforts; we propose that this redeployment of resources coincide with the withdrawal of our military forces. And we propose a series of domestic reforms to restore checks and balances in our government and prevent another unchecked rush to war in the future.

Much of the necessary legislation is already written. Other aspects of this proposal will likely have to await our election to Congress later this year. But everything we propose can be done, and done quickly, at significantly lower cost than that of our current military efforts in Iraq.

In so doing, we believe we can not only end a destructive war, but offer a new beginning to the people of Iraq.

The April 7th Huffington Post reports that this Plan is gaining traction.