Not a 'Bullhorn Moment'

Once upon a time, President Bush spoke for the entire nation. Three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he stood atop the rubble of the World Trade Center and proclaimed, his voice husky with obvious passion: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon."

They call it Bush's "Bullhorn moment".

Last night's prime-time address to the nation on the fifth anniversary of those attacks was, well, another kind of moment entirely.

The occasion called for reflection and an attempt to unify the nation in its grief and determination. In fact, it was billed as such by the White House.

Instead, Bush delivered a leaden rehash of his unpersuasive rationales for his response to the threat of terrorism. He made a carefully crafted attempt to terrify Americans into supporting his deeply unpopular war in Iraq. He was misleading. He mischaracterized his critics.

It's hard to imagine that he could have been more divisive if he'd tried. And with most Americans no longer trusting the president, it's hard to imagine the speech served him well.

Here's the text ; here's the video .

The Coverage

Michael Abramowitz and Michael A. Fletcher write in The Washington Post: "'Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq,' Bush said last night in a prime-time address from the Oval Office, 'the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.'

"That ominous language capped an emotional day that took Bush to each of the three locations where terrorists crashed hijacked planes five years ago and killed nearly 3,000 people. It also marked the culmination of a new White House campaign to tie what polls show is a unpopular war in Iraq to a broader campaign against Islamic radicals who, as Bush put it last night, are 'determined to bring death and suffering into our homes.'

"In weaving the two issues together last night, Bush melded one of the most unifying events in recent national experience -- the common horror and sadness of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- with one of the most polarizing, the war in Iraq."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "Mr. Bush sought to place the war in Iraq in the context of an epic battle between tyranny and freedom, saying the campaign against global terrorism was 'the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation.' . . .

"Even by the standards of his latest round of speeches, Mr. Bush's language was particularly forceful, even ominous, with warnings of a radical Islamic network that was 'determined to bring death and suffering to our homes.' "