Republicans generally have two major complaints about Iraq, and both were highlighted when President Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
1. The president rarely goes out of his way to justify U.S. military action, why we went into Iraq, why we're still there, and why we need to stay in the foreseeable future.
2. When there is good news from Iraq, the national news media buries it.
Bush's speech to the VFW was one of those addresses he gives about once each year in Iraq, in which he makes a cogent argument for what he's doing. The problem for the GOP is that he then goes into a hole in the White House and, while Democrats, anti-war activists and pundits are ripping Iraq strategy, Bush is never there to fire back.
Bush gave historical parallels between Iraq and World War II Japan, and Iraq and Vietnam. Good points were made in each, but his comments could probably draw argument from historians. The president also announced that an average of more than 1,500 insurgents have been killed or captured per month since January, answering those who were looking for numbers to ascribe to surge success. He went on to say he still has faith in Prime Minister al-Maliki -- though this is from a guy who also has faith in Russia's Putin.
Support for the military operation in Iraq has suffered over the years because things haven't always gone so well and because Bush has not stayed actively engaged in the debate. If Bush goes back into his shell after delivering one of the better speeches of his presidency, fellow Republicans will have a perfect right to sigh in disappointment.
Meanwhile, as I searched this evening for a link to news coverage of the speech, I had a hard time finding anything. I did find an article that highlighted Bush's pledge of support to al-Maliki, and another on terrorist casualties. But those I had to dig for.
The headlines on the front page of Yahoo! didn't have it, though the support for al-Maliki story appeared later in the evening. That armored vehicles were slow in reaching the troops was listed higher, as was Hurricane Deane's progress report. Among other news sites, ABC News was similar. Fox News ran it as a sub-headline under a story about Hillary Clinton calling for al-Maliki's ouster. CNN doesn't even list it, instead running a story that U.S. officials are rethinking democracy plans in Iraq.
Next election year is going to be a big challenge for Republicans to get their message out to the regular voters.
