Finding a responsible way to get out of Iraq is the most serious test of leadership facing our country with tremendous consequences for both our security and our economy.

My "Responsible Plan for Iraq" is based on direct experience in Iraq as a member of Maine's 133rd Engineer Battalion and my service in Bosnia in the 1990s. Here's what I've learned from those experiences.

Lesson 1: Responsibility means speaking honestly.

Five years ago, President Bush gave his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, one in a long line of remarks that oversimplified a complicated situation on the ground, glossed over a horrendous lack of proper planning and misled the American people.

As a consequence, I shipped out from the Westbrook Armory to Iraq. I spent a year there, led more than 100 convoys, saw friends killed, treated people who died and missed the birth of my first daughter. As a result of poor planning, I saw troops duct-taping flak jackets to troop carriers to provide protection from IEDs. I saw more than 100 people killed or wounded in the Mosul chow hall suicide bombing because of policies that put "no-bid" civilian contracts ahead of security.

The lesson is that simplistic sound-bites are irresponsible. We need to demand more from our leaders. We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. This is why I have never suggested we can simply "cut the funding now and bring the troops home immediately." I do not believe it is possible, responsible or wise.

Lesson 2: Diplomacy is the missing ingredient.

What can we do to get our troops out safely, responsibly and as soon as possible? Again, my views are based on two very different experiences – and revolve around the essential role of diplomacy.

In Bosnia, I was part of a well-equipped, well-prepared international military force under American command. We were sent in after Ambassador Richard Holbrooke brokered the Dayton Peace Accords. We ended a bloody war, during which three rival ethnic groups had killed 110,000 people in a country just over half the size of Maine.

In Iraq, our men and women in uniform have performed exceptionally well, but we never had the troop levels or equipment we needed. We did not have international backing and support. And there was never enough planning or diplomacy for what came after our military took Baghdad.

In Bosnia, we used the full force of our diplomatic and military power to bring local leaders together to find their own solution to live in relative peace. In Iraq, we are still trying to use military power alone to impose a Western-style democracy on a people who have no history or cultural understanding of the system. It is not working, and it is not sustainable.

We need a major diplomatic initiative together with a withdrawal timeline for our troops so that we do not leave behind a chaotic, unstable region or humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur.

Lesson 3: We must honor commitments made to our veterans.

We can and should debate the right way to get out of Iraq. What I don't believe is debatable is the need to live up to our commitments to veterans when they come home.

Our government still funds the Veterans Affairs' health-care system on an ad-hoc, "emergency" basis rather than making a long-term investment in world-class care. That is not a morally acceptable position, and it must change. We need to fully fund health care for veterans.

These are three key elements to begin the process of getting out of Iraq responsibly and putting our country back on the right track here at home.

You can read my full plan and "What I learned in Iraq" online at www.AdamCote.com.