An Unclear and Present Danger

President Bush prides himself on being clear. I can only assume by "clear" he means "people understand my beliefs" and not "my speeches are easy to translate from politicise to plain 'ol english." Because if he means the later, his ability to be clear is as good as his multitasking skills.

His speech last Friday made many points, but there's not much of a consensus on what the overall message was. Normally I could care less about such things (his speeches have never been a rallying cry for our troops, in fact, more often than not it has provoked the enemy more than our allies) but this time it's different. This time around his theme seemed to revolve around making sure our troops are doubt free, but reactions from the masses indicate they don't really know what Bush was trying to accomplish.

Or maybe people are just reading what they want to read. I don't know. You be "The Judge:"

Bryan Preston (via Michelle Malkin) believes the speech was an excellent opportunity to blame former President Bill Clinton, because he too had information and theories about Saddam having WMDs (but I don't remember us invading Iraq under his administration):

You can either go to Google and plug in the search string in that graphic, or you can just click on the graphic. Google will take you back in time to 1998, the last time prior to the invasion that the US and Saddam Hussein had a major confrontation. The Google search string Clinton Iraq 1998 will bring up 3.5 million hits about that conflict, during which pretty much every prominent Democrat expressed his or her belief that Saddam had or was developing WMD and was a threat because of it.

Fred Kaplan from Slate says Bush has flip-flopped:

President George W. Bush has suddenly shifted rhetoric on the war in Iraq. Until recently, the administration's line was basically, "Everything we are saying and doing is right." It was a line that held him in good stead, especially with his base, which admired his constancy above all else. Now, though, as his policies are failing and even his base has begun to abandon him, a new line is being trotted out: "Yes, we were wrong about some things, but everybody else was wrong, too, so get over it."

From Redstate, Bush is a fighter (and those who accuse him of lying are liers themselves, so they shouldn't throw stones):

President Bush came out swinging today, once again laying out the strategy in the War Against Terror and taking on those trying to rewrite recent history to fit their political goals.
As he did last month in his Never Back Down, Never Give In speech before the National Endowment for Democracy, the President reminded us that on September 11, 2001 "we saw the destruction that terrorists intend for our nation." President Bush again succinctly summarized the goal and vision of the enemy and eloquently laid out our strategy to win the War On Terror.
Concerning the never substantiated allegations that the administration somehow skewed intelligence (I guess this doesn't count as "substantial"- Pryme) to justify the Iraq front, President Bush was more diplomatic than he could have been...

Martin Frost (via Fox News) says that all of a sudden, Bush wants to play the Blame Game:

President Bush on Friday attacked the patriotism of Democratic congressmen and senators by saying that elected officials who now raise questions about the actions leading up to the current war in Iraq are letting down our troops in the field and giving aid and comfort to the insurgents.
Somewhere along the line, President Bush seems to have forgotten his basic civics lesson about how a democracy works. Thanks to our successful revolution against King George III, we have the right to dissent in this country. We have the right to question the actions of our own government. To suggest otherwise would be to relegate us to a dictatorship. And, after all, we have been telling the Iraqi people about the virtues of a democracy.

And there's Josh Micah Marshall from Talking Points Memo, who thinks that Bush is avoiding the responsibility that comes with his job title:

As I said above, many Democrats ran scared in the face of this once-popular president's onslaught and said many things they probably now wish they hadn't. Let's catalog those statements and let them answer for their cowardice and wobbliness. But the president was president -- a fact of accountability he never seems to grasp. He drove the train. He and his advisors cynically worked to convince the public that Saddam was tied to 9/11 -- an explosive claim in the aftermath of the 9/11 horror. That's something they knew wasn't true and which none of the president's critics, to be the best of my knowledge, ever agreed with or argued for. President Bush and his administration are on the line for that.

Trust me, theres more; just too much to post. But does this look like the President is sending a clear message on what we are doing in Iraq? What we should be doing? All I see is more confusion. And that confusion, that lack of clarity, is what's really putting our troops in danger.