Americans did not hear the words they most wanted from President Bush in his State of the Union speech to Congress and the nation last night: some sort of assurance by the commander in chief that U.S. forces would come home from the unraveling conflict in Iraq sooner rather than later.
Instead, we were given, as expected, another sales pitch on behalf of the increasingly isolated and unpopular president's plan to escalate U.S. involvement in the Iraqi civil war.
Despite being the center of attention last night in the crowded House chamber, George W. Bush looked rather alone -- sadly symbolic of where he has put himself as he refuses to correct his failed course in Iraq.
Rather than waste time in his speech on programs and initiatives with little potential for solving the problems of a nation at war, the president ought to use all his airtime attempting to succeed at what he so far has failed at doing: Convincing the American people that the mess he's led us into in Iraq is worth it.
The president's agenda was diminished by the toll the war has taken and continues to take.
His assertion another 21,500 soldiers in Iraq -- pushing our presence there upward of 150,000 troops -- rang almost of desperation, as if that increment were the secret to success where so much failure abounds. It did serve as a reminder of how little we have really achieved there.
Overly optimistic
In other areas, the president laid out an optimistic domestic agenda that turned attention from Iraq, but in many ways seemed overly upbeat, given the distraction of the war.
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