Late last year, Eric Egland wrote a piece for THE DAILY STANDARD titled "Six Steps to Victory". The plan was based on Egland's service in both Iraq and Afghanistan as well as his prior experience in counterterrorism. Egland's strategy focused on increasing the effectiveness of American troops in Iraq and harnessing the vast untapped resource of the American public to support the troops in their efforts. The steps...

1. Encourage innovation by emphasizing small-scale technological solutions and rejecting peacetime bureaucracy.

2. Improve pre-deployment training realism and abandon Cold War-era checklists.

3. Allow local commanders to buy what they need and nationalize the war effort by connecting the American public with the troops and their mission.

4. Strengthen intelligence sharing between tactical and national levels, and develop a national insurgent database.

5. Take the offensive by reducing predictable patterns on the ground while conducting operations that hunt, rather than chase, the enemy.

6. Accept the realities of warfare in the media age by decentralizing the sharing of information with both the Iraqi and the American public.

Egland expanded this plan into a book, The Troops Need You, America!, and he has been working to put his plan into action with public support at his website, troopsneedyou.com.

But yesterday, Egland took the next step--let's call it the Seventh Step. He announced that he's running for Congress from California's Fourth Congressional District. He will be challenging Republican Rep. John Doolittle, who is currently under federal investigation in relation to dealings with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Egland's set up a campaign website, and he's already been the subject of some favorable press in his home district.

Egland may know more about the war in Iraq, counterinsurgency, and counterterrorism than the rest of Congress combined, but the best part is...he's running on a platform of fiscal discipline and "ethical leadership based on deeply-held conservative values." The WWS wishes one of our own the best of luck, and we will be keeping a close eye on his campaign.