Abu Grub

Just read the transcript and while the speech seems more substantive than I'm used to from the President (that is, it says anything substantial at all), mroe than a few analysts I've read have pointed out that his five points are more a laundry list of what needs to be done in any case, rather than anything substantially groundbreaking. And, while he's muted the message somewhat, he's still suggesting, repeatedly, an Iraqi-Al Qaeda connection, in order to offer legitimacy to a war whose main justification, WMD, never materialized. And then there's the big mystery behind how you can claim to be giving a country completely sovereignty but insist at the same time that you're leaving 150,000 soldiers on their turf... pay no attention to the man behind the gun... he's wishing you well after all, he's there for your own good.

And apparently he had a hell of a time pronouncing Abu Ghraib, but now we're quibbling...

The New York Times took him to task for the speech, of course, but I was a little surprised to find a critique of the speech over at National Review Online.