Even so, I would predict that the morale-boosting effect of the speeches will be short-lived, and that their ultimate impact will be, on balance, more negative than positive. Pundits have pointed to distortions and ellisions within the speeches, but it is not for these that I would take the President to task. Having had such a complete void of candor from this administration, I can no longer evince surprise when it finally emerges within very strict limits. Rather, it is the overall logical thrust of the President's 'plan for victory' that I find ill-conceived and rhetorically ill-advised.That is, ultimately, the hubris which defines the Imperial Presidency, and the neo-conservative/PNAC/Straussian movement within it: they really think that they're in charge and that people will consistently do what they "predict" (it's not really prediction; more like wishful thinking within sharp ideological blinders).
The administration's division of the Coalition mission into military, economic, and political aspects is in itself sound, but in all these arenas the President described a process in which the US has far more control than is at all possible.
[Thanks, Avedon!] Read the whole thing, it's solid, thoughtful stuff.
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