A peculiar feature of this year's presidential campaign has been the absence of serious debate, until recently, between George W. Bush and his challenger John Kerry over Iraq. Mr Kerry voted earlier to authorise the war and recently stated, bizarrely, that he still would have voted for the war despite what has transpired. Only in the face of rapidly declining poll numbers after the Republican national convention did Mr Kerry seek at long last to distance himself, criticising the president's handling of Iraq's insurgency and suggesting the US might be able to withdraw in four years. This was foolish: setting a deadline for withdrawal sends the wrong signal to US friends and foes alike, and makes Mr Kerry look vacillating. His suggestion that US forces might one day be replaced by international ones is similarly a non-starter.

In fact, the Bush administration's failure to plan adequately for Iraq's postwar reconstruction was a big failure of policy, one that will greatly limit future US policy choices. The recent escalation in violence, with US deaths passing the 1,000 mark, underlines just how insecure the country is. But the real debate should not focus on assigning blame for this mess, but on concrete strategies to help the US recover from it. This is among the greatest challenges for the next US president.