Bush Rhetoric Hard to Square With Facts

In this video frame grab taken from television, President Bush addresses the nation from the White House library in Washington, Wednesday Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/APTN) (AP)

WASHINGTON -- Winning support among Middle Eastern countries is part of President Bush's revised strategy for Iraq. But he pitched the new plan by leaving out a pertinent fact: Anti-U.S. rhetoric in those nations has grown increasingly hostile since the execution of a man Bush never mentioned _ Saddam Hussein.

Bush said in his speech to the nation Wednesday that he's sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region on Friday in a new diplomatic offensive to build support for Iraq. He portrayed average citizens in the Middle East as supportive of U.S. goals.

In fact, opinion leaders in the Middle East used Saddam's execution in recent days to rail against Bush.

In the past, the president mentioned Saddam's "evil mind" in building his case for war.

In contrast to Bush's view about Middle East opinion:

_The religious establishment in Saudi Arabia, which is rooted in the hard-line Wahhabi stream of Sunni Islam, has stepped up its anti-Shiite rhetoric. Last month, about 30 clerics called on Sunnis around the Middle East to support their brethren in Iraq against Shiites and praised the insurgency.

_In Friday prayers in the Qatari capital, influential Sunni cleric Sheik Youssef Qaradawi accused Iraq's Shiite government of "a genocide" against Sunnis and appealed to the Sunni world to intervene.

Bush's view Wednesday night: From "Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian territories, millions of ordinary people" are asking: "Will America withdraw and yield the future of that country to the extremists or will we stand with the Iraqis who have made the choice for freedom?"

Bush also declared the need to address Iran and Syria's support for insurgents.

Again, he left out a key fact: The president has refused to engage either country diplomatically, as many U.S. allies and the independent Iraq Study Group urged him to do.

Other contrasts in Bush's speech:

Reconstruction