Bush's Big Gambit

On Tuesday night, I poured myself a double scotch before watching the President’s speech. As it turned out, I needed it.

As I have noted in the past, I’m an old fart. Five more years and I will qualify for both Social Security and Medicare – if they’re still around. The trouble with getting old is that almost every day is another déjà vu experience. It seems the human race suffers from a nearly flat learning curve, because we keep repeating past mistakes with alarming frequency and enthusiasm.

Here’s what I mean: I took Bush’s speech and compared it to the speeches of two former presidents, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. The speeches were, like Tuesday's, given at times when Americans were increasingly questioning the reasoning and logic behind the war in Vietnam.

The Selfless-Sacrifice Gambit

Bush (6/28/05): "Our mission in Iraq is clear: we're helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We're advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. We are removing a source of violence and instability and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren."

Johnson (1965): "We fight (in Vietnam) because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny, and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure."

The Threat-to-America Gambit

Bush (6/28/05): "The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September the 11th,  if we abandon the Iraqi people to men like Zarqawi and if we yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden. For the sake of our nation's security, this will not happen on my watch. We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve."

Nixon (1969): "Our defeat and humiliation in South Vietnam without question would promote recklessness in the councils of those great powers who have not yet abandoned their goals of world conquest. This would spark violence wherever our commitments help maintain the peace -- in the Middle East, in Berlin, eventually even in the Western Hemisphere."

The I-Listen-To-Military-Experts Gambit

Bush (6/28/05): "Some Americans ask me, 'If completing the mission is so important, why don't you send more troops?' If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them."

Johnson (1968): "On many occasions I have told the American people that we would send to Vietnam those forces that are required to accomplish our mission there. So, with that as our guide, we have previously authorized a force level of approximately 525,000."

The They-Are-Animals Gambit

Bush (6/28/05): "The terrorists... are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who exploded car bombs along a busy shopping street in Baghdad, including one outside a mosque. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who sent a suicide bomber to a teaching hospital in Mosul. We see the nature of the enemy in terrorists who behead civilian hostages and broadcast their atrocities for the world to see."

Johnson (1965): "And it is a war of unparalleled brutality. Simple farmers are the targets of assassination and kidnapping. Women and children are strangled in the night because their men are loyal to the government. And helpless villagers are ravaged by sneak attacks. Large-scale raids are conducted on towns, and terror strikes in the heart of cities."

The Gift-of-Freedom Gambit

Bush (6/28/05): " America's mission in Iraq is to defeat an enemy and give strength to a friend -- a free, representative government that is an ally in the war on terror and a beacon of hope in a part of the world that is desperate for reform."