Bush Speaks Tonight

Brendan Miniter has a nice essay in the Wall Street Journal today:

At a press conference with the new Iraqi prime minister last week, a reporter noted slipping public opinion of the war and asked President Bush if his administration is now stuck in the mud. Mr. Bush responded with a joke, saying the reporter might even call it a "quagmire." The reference is to Vietnam, of course, and some in the press corps these days hardly seem able to hide their glee that Mr. Bush's war appears to be faltering. Tonight the president will strike back with a live, prime-time speech aimed at rallying public support.

We can hope that he will mention Vietnam because that metaphor is getting hard to escape. Not because the U.S. is embroiled in a far off, unwinnable war that is somehow compromising the nation's moral character--although convincing us of that is clearly the goal of the critics who never tire of using Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and the Patriot Act to claim the administration is tossing civil rights to the wind. Those were the conclusions drawn by the antiwar left in the late 1960s and early '70s and ended up being apt as the pressure caused the U.S. to retreat and a betray our allies in Vietnam. This was the case even as on the ground, particularly after the Tet offensive in 1968, the communist forces were decimated by the American military. Rather the Vietnam metaphor is apt today because the U.S. is in a war it can win and is winning, if only those inside the Beltway would stop preferring defeat to victory and disgrace to honor.

Bush must be forceful when discussing the US pulling out of Iraq. 7 out of 8 Americans understand that we can not cut and run as the Democrats want. He must make very clear that the defeatist element is doing nothing but destroy morale of the troops and make us look weak to our enemies.

Furthermore, he should pound home that a congressional delegation toured Gitmo and found conditions to be pretty good.

Leave out any talk of the Patriot Act and pummel Senate Democrats with their own words. That will make Americans aware of how they are undermining the most important military and foreign affairs operation in 60 years.