Jonah Goldberg sums it up.

Jonah Goldberg today is a nice summing up of the Iraq situation and why Kerry still isn't making real headway against Bush.

Key point:

"There simply is no diplomacy with the enemy today. So, that means going on offense. That means taking the fight to them. That means, in the short term, "creating" more extremists and terrorists by fighting on their home turf. But the point isn't merely to fight them, it's to pull the rug out from under them. The ultimate goal is democracy, of course. But the interim goal is to rationalize the Middle East so that, while it may still produce enemies, they will be ones we can deal with around a table, not a crater. And the short-term goal is to kill lots of them where they live, instead of them doing the same to us."

This is the salient point that the Left - and their candidates - need not simply understand as a point of view, but rather embrace as a fact of the current objective reality. The enemy is not interested in anything we might have to say or offer them - they wish our death, nothing else is glorifying or victorious to their cause. Until the Left fully understands this, quite simply, they are unfit to lead.