Escalation is a certainty, and yet the architects of escalation feel... alone. Bush, in his radio address, demanded: "Those who refuse to give this plan a chance to work have an obligation to offer an alternative that has a better chance for success." Bill Kristol, intellectual midwife of escalation, has an even fruitier take. In his editorial this week, he gets into the minds of anti-escalation congresspersons:

Say you're an average congressman. How do you react to President Bush's Iraq speech? You suspect, deep down, that he's probably doing more or less what he needs to do.

Delicious: the average congressman knows, deep down, in the darkness of his bower, the palpitation of his heart, that Bush is right. Cravenly, the average congressman attacks Bush -- brave, decisive, wise Bush, stung by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. For Bush's part, we who oppose escalation are obligated to articulate a better plan for winning his futile war. Strangely, I feel no such obligation: the only way forward is out. All else is Zengerlism.