Heard the President's appearance at Fort Bragg last night. I was in the car so I got to listen to most of his address on the radio. I thought he hit several of the right points that he needed to emphasize.

Once we removed Saddam Hussein from power, there was no turning back. We have to see Iraq through to a stable, new government. We cannot pull our troops out until the job is done.

I agree with the president that all the talk about setting a date for withdrawing troops is ridiculous. His timetable that "As the Iraqis step up, we will step down" is the right approach, and it is all that should be said.

I think he addressed several of the things that America needed to hear to keep our support up for a difficult task.

He did not address the issues that have me upset, though.

The insurgency will lose an enormous amount of its support once we are gone and Iraq governs itself. But as long as we keep the policies in place that create the problems at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, we are a huge liability to the new Iraqi government.

As long as we mistreat our prisoners, we villify ourselves in the eyes of the Iraqi people who were just recently so grateful to us for their liberation. To whatever extent we make ourselves evil, we taint the new Iraqi government that we helped establish, and we encourage young idealists to join the insurgency.

Here is my list of what I would like to see:

1. We need to recognize that all our prisoners are regular prisoners of war and re-instate their Geneva Convention rights.
2. We need to comply with the Supreme Court ruling about hearings for Guantanamo prisoners.
3. We need to help the new Iraqi government claim the moral high ground. There are several ways this could happen.

• The new Iraqi government should vehemently and publicly call us to task for the mistreatment of prisoners. Every time the new Iraqi Prime Minister meets with a U.S. official, he should publicly mention that he hopes we will soon respect the human rights of our prisoners.
• Use Saddam's old television network to greater advantage in highlighting the difference between the agenda of the insurgency and the agenda of the new government.
  - We want to rebuild the infrastructure for your electricity. The insurgents want you to sit in the dark without air conditioning.
  - We want you to be able to speak your opinion freely. The insurgents want you to feel the silencing oppression of the old regime.
  - We want a government that fairly represents the needs of Shias, Kurds, and Sunnis equally. The insurgents want our children to spend their lives killing each other in hatred.

This kind of campaign needs to co-opt the idealism that is driving young men to join the insurgency by portraying the bravery and heroism of the citizens who stand up to the insurgents. Very simple 15-second TV and radio spots with different "every man" individuals saying, "My name is Ali and I am a clerk at the new Parliament. I know I am in danger, but I go to work every day anyway because I believe in my future and the future of Iraq." or "My name is Ahmed. I am an emergency room doctor. I am in danger every day, but I stay because I want a better life for my children." or "My name is Moayad. I make repairs at a power plant. The insurgents threaten me but I carry on because that is best for my family and all Iraqis."

Then, when a car bomb kills a doctor or a maintenance worker, the people relate it to the face they've seen and the statement of a suicide bomber is no longer "I hate America", but it becomes "I hate Iraq."

The Iraqis will only defeat the insurgency if they can believe that the insurgents are evil and resisting them is noble. As long as we continue to confirm their opinion that we are evil, the young, dedicated idealists will blow themselves to oblivion to undermine the new government instead of joining the forces to defend their new homeland.

We cannot be both the benevolent liberator and the regime of torture. It is immoral, and it is strategically flawed.