We?ll learn later this week details of President Bush?s new plan for the Iraq campaign.

A John Locke Foundation audience heard this afternoon some of the thoughts from a Tar Heel within the Bush Defense Department: Robert Wilkie, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs.

Wilkie shied away from releasing details of the president?s plan. But he offered some general comments about the need to win in Iraq. He drew a Cold War parallel (video):

The chattering classes jeered Ronald Reagan when he was asked by Helen Thomas for his strategy to defeat the Soviet Union. He said, ?Well, Helen, American strategy is simple. It is: We win, and they lose.? And in that spirit, we have to stop talking about redeployment and exit strategies and focus on victory because as President Bush has said: The safety of the American people is at stake, but so to is the cause of human freedom.

Wilkie says we should expect to see more ?retooling? of the Iraq campaign in the days ahead.