Bill Kristol on escalation:

There has been some sniping at the Keane-Kagan plan. But what is striking is that so few of the critics actually go to the trouble of analyzing it--or proposing a substitute. Instead, Keane and Kagan are treated with annoyance and disdain. Don't they know that we're losing in Iraq and that it's time to leave? What's all this talk about staying and fighting and winning? Didn't anyone tell them that the Bush Administration's errors have been so grievous that success is hopeless?

You want specifics? Click through here. But look: the substitute is withdrawal. Kristol can't answer the questions he poses, and so he poses them only to make them look unserious. But the unseriousness is all his own -- the only reason he gives to believe him is that he believes it can work, after talking to "soldiers and experts." Forgive me if I find this less than compelling.