“The Speech I Would Have Written”

The president is going to talk about Iraq again. He is going to have to. The problem is not that his speech Tuesday night failed to quell his critics; no speech could have done that. The problem is that his speech failed to reassure his worried supporters.
Those who support the president do not need to be told how important this war is, but that is precisely why they are worried about the terrible news brought from that country. The president says progress is being made in Iraq, but his words would have been more convincing if he gave some concrete examples. He could have cited the capture of three of the top insurgent leaders, the capture of weapon caches, the discovery of an insurgent torture chamber, the release of the Australian hostage Douglas Wood, etc. Americans want to hear a plan for victory. It is good that U.S. is training the Iraqi forces, but it is not enough. We have to start a full-scale terrorism war against a big movement backed by Syria and Iran. On September 20, 2001, George W. Bush said that any nation that continued supporting terrorism would be regarded as a hostile regime. Has such policy been abandoned? If not, what consequences will these hostile regimes face?
Success in Iraq is achievable, but the Americans are losing their optimism. They want facts and explanations.