Iraq: “A new birth of freedom?”

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I understand that Bush addressed the VFW convention in Utah today. The speech was going to be about Iraq. By the time you read this, perhaps you'll have heard what he said. I haven't, yet.

Maybe he talked about what he believes is "the noble cause" that we're fighting for in Iraq. I'm pretty sure he'll reiterate his message that "freedom is on the march."

But what does that mean, really? Do you know?

Lincoln was also a war President and I believe he said it best:

...[W]e here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

These are familiar themes. Lincoln's hymn is our hymn. And this administration can sing from that hymnal....almost.

They sing about the honored dead. They sing about freedom. But when it comes to singing about government, they've already closed the book sat down.

So here's where I'm coming from:

I ask those of you who believe that this President needs defending -- what would you think if all of our blood, all of our treasure birthed an Islamic Republic of Iraq? A Islamic republic that was in the orbit of the Islamic republic of Iran?

Would you feel that all of this had been worth it? Or would you feel that our honored dead had perhaps died in vain?

And if you saw it happening, this Islamic republic, and your son was already among the dead, wouldn't you be pretty bitter about it?

I'm just saying.