We 'Control the Calendar'

"We don't control the will of the Iraqi people. All we can control is the calendar.

"The best path to victory in Iraq -- to giving Iraqis a free and independent nation -- is leaving."

So says Bryan Lentz, a former Airborne Ranger, Iraq war vet and candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania's 7th district. Lentz is taking on Curt Weldon, a 19-year incumbent who, unlike long-serving Democrat Jack Murtha, has done nothing to use his position of seniority to lead us out of Iraq. I should know: I have spent my life living one congressional district away in Pennsylvania.

Lentz has seconded the sentiments of Congressman Murtha and, like Murtha, speaks with authority on things military. His resume as a soldier includes a stint as an Infantry officer in the fabled 82nd Airborne. His military qualifications include: Ranger, Jumpmaster, Jungle Warfare...and the list goes on. In addition to volunteering for Iraq in 2003 at the age of 39, Lentz has also served tours in the Sinai Peninsula and Bosnia.

He is joining the ranks of Democrats who are challenging the Republican party on national security while remaining true to core Democratic issues. He is running in a district which is ripe for change; Clinton, Gore and Kerry all won the 7th with Kerry carrying it with 56% of the vote. Lentz has the right message and the right profile for patriotic and moderate Delaware county and environs.

And Lentz has something else the Republicans, and in particular Curt Weldon, lack on Iraq -- a plan and a voice.

First and foremost Lentz stands up for his fellow soldiers with this truism:

"The threat of (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction has been definitively eliminated; Saddam Hussein has been removed from power; and this month, Iraqis will elect a government. The one remaining hurdle -- suppressing the insurgency and enabling a stable, democratic Iraq -- can only be cleared when we withdraw our forces."

Without incentive and with no end in sight, neither the American nor Iraqi people can sustain the effort to preserve the freedom from tyranny for which we have paid so dearly. A timetable, says Lentz, is the only method to providing this incentive.

Second, Lentz highlights one of the war's great under-reported failures: the locking in of billions of dollars in contracts to large American companies who have been unwilling or unable to execute the projects for which they were hired.

The result:

"Today, roughly half of all Iraqi households are still without clean water, the average household is without electricity for ten hours each day, and (outside of Baghdad) only eight percent of households have access to a sewage system. The reconstruction fiasco has created a drag on Iraq's economy - nearly half the country is under-employed or unemployed - and fertile ground for political instability, terrorism and insurgency."

Lentz's solution (obvious to all but the Bush administration): fire the contractors and hire local Iraqi companies to fix the infrastructure and put Iraqis to work building their future. Just like taking the lead on security, Iraqis need the opportunity and the incentive to rebuild the country. The Iraqi people, not Halliburton, should profit from rebuilding the country.

We need guys like Bryan Lentz to get into Congress to add their voices to those of courageous men like Jack Murtha. We need new voices to break the silence of Congressman Weldon and others who are playing wait-and-see instead of leading.

As a country we do "control the calendar," and one date we should all be highlighting is Tuesday, November 7,  2006.