The latest issue of Commentary magazine includes Duke Professor Peter Feaver’s take on Bush administration war planning from summer 2005 to summer 2007. 

Among the interesting observations is Feaver’s description of the most common war criticisms in summer 2005.

Here at home, administration policy was inundated by criticisms on
every front. Much of it was reckless, but not all of it. From
?skeptical supporters? of the war like Senator John McCain and the
military analyst Fred Kagan came the charge that the number of American
?boots on the ground? was far from sufficient to accomplish the
mission. Although our military commanders in Iraq kept assuring the
White House that this was not the case, the criticism flitted like
Banquo?s ghost in the background of every internal discussion about the
war.

Some Democrats in the ?loyal opposition??i.e., those who were not
simply advocating an irresponsible strategy of defeat and
withdrawal?made the same point, but more often they took a different
tack. Charging that the administration had no strategy beyond ?staying
the course,? they proposed instead that the United States pressure the
Iraqis to bring the sullen and disaffected Sunni minority into the
political sphere. This would siphon support from the insurgency. In
addition, the Pentagon needed to accelerate the training of Iraqi
security forces to handle more of the load against the enemies of the
new Iraq. And the State Department had to lean on Iraq?s neighbors to
do more to help.

This counsel seemed maddeningly sensible to us. It was, to the
letter, the administration?s strategy at that very moment. Still,
exasperating though it may have been to be told that we should do what
we were actually doing, this line of criticism also seemed to contain
potentially good news. Perhaps, we thought, we could find common ground
with these Democratic critics?their number included Senators Hillary
Clinton, Joseph Biden, and Carl Levin?and forge a consensus on how to
move forward.

Feaver says the common-ground option disappeared once Rep. Jack Murtha announced in November 2005 that he wanted soldiers back home as soon as possible.