Not a 'Bullhorn Moment'

"Mr. Nixon famously warned that night that if 'the United States of America acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.'"

Blurring the Truth

Peter S. Canellos writes in his Boston Globe column: "In his blitzkrieg of 9/11 speeches, Bush has lumped together numerous countries, foreign leaders, religious figures, and political movements under one banner -- as supporters of terrorism -- and ignored the differences among them.

"On the stump, this conveys a sense of moral clarity, of a battle between good people and evil people, suggesting a clean distinction can be made. But it also has led to a widespread misunderstanding -- that all the people cited by Bush are working in concert against the United States. . . .

"Understanding all those ideologies and agendas does not seem to interest Bush, and has not really captured the attention of the US public. Fighting for freedom against bad guys is all that most people want to hear about."

Opinion Watch

The New York Times editorial board writes that if Bush's view of the war on terror "were actual reality, the president's call to 'put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us' would be inspiring, instead of frustrating and depressing."

But: "Where Mr. Bush sees an infant secular Iraqi government, most of the world sees a collection of ethnic and religious factional leaders, armed with private militias, presiding over growing strife between Shiites and Sunnis. Warning that American withdrawal would 'embolden' the enemy is far from an argument as long as there is constant evidence that American presence is creating a fearful backlash throughout the Muslim world that empowers the fanatics far more than it frightens them. . . .

"It's hard to figure out how to build consensus when the men in charge embrace a series of myths.

Keith Olberman had a blistering commentary on MSNBC (here's the video ): "Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

"The President -- and those around him -- did that.

"They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, 'bi-partisanship' meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, 'validate the strategy of the terrorists.' . . .

"The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is 'lying by implication.'

"The impolite phrase is 'impeachable offense.'"