The Speech

No one, I trust, will confuse me with a diehard Bush supporter, but I thought that the first half of Bush's speech was the best and most honest of his Presidency. The plan he proposed was not crazy, but it depends very heavily on the Iraqi government taking a lot of hard steps it has steadily avoided this past year. Much of the latter part of the speech was marred by the same Utopian neo-con fantasy that got us into this mess.

I really hated the responses of Democratic Senators Durbin and Obama. They were cookie cutter criticisms that did not address the specifics of Bush's proposals and merely sought to ride the wave of public hostility to Bush.

I don't have much faith that Bush's proposal can work, but it does at least propose to do things that should have been tried long ago - closer coordination (adult supervision) of the Iraqi military, fair distribution of oil revenues, public works employment measures, and amendment of the constitution. It's very likely too little and too late, both politically and militarily. Too late to rally the American people behind it, and too late to suppress the Iraqi civil war. Even if successful, it will be expensive in American lives and money.

We really could have used this Bush a couple of years ago.

Congress also faces a tough choice. They must either support or at least allow the President's plan to be tried or else bring home the troops very quickly. It is unacceptable to permit the present slow and bloody process of losing to continue. Time to fish or cut bait.