Bush's speech on Iraq policy didn't have any big surprises. Although the $87 billion figure for the additional funds he's requesting for Iraq and Afghanistan was notably higher than the $60-$70 billion the Administration was floating last week.
I did expect him to give more emphasis to his effort to get United Nations help. But I didn't hear anything to change my impression that the effort is less than serious.
Bush repeated "terrorism" and "terror" over and over, arguing that the Iraq War was related to his War on Terrorism that began with the 9/11 attacks.
But Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with those attacks. And the "weapons of mass destruction" haven't yet been found in Iraq either. If Iraq has now become the front line of the war on terrorism, it's because Bush and Rummy took the country over.
The Iraq War was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. The fact that Bush felt it necessary to give a pep talk about Iraq - and that's about all this was - is about the only indication in this speech that he understands just how dismayed so many Americans are about what's happening in the war right now.
- Bruce Miller
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