YOU'RE SEXY WHEN YOU'RE SCARY. I'd love to know which "major public-relations offensive to strengthen support for the Iraq War" we're at now. Is this the fifth? The seventh? The twelfth? Because while Rummy accuses Democrats of "campaigning on fear" (see, irony's not dead!) and Bush denounces all of us who eventually want to stop running Iraq, I'm getting, well, bored. This is the third set of major speeches Bush has given on the issue this year, and the song and dance remains the same. We can't abandon the mission, we must stay the course, any sort of orderly withdrawal or redeployment is catnip for terrorists, and so on. That's weak. I want some good old-fashioned fear-mongering -- wild insinuations that Hussein personally hijacked the jets, promises that the terrorists will hide in the wheel wells of our aircraft and use our retreat to gain entry into the United States -- whatever. Just give me something to go on here. And, while I can't speak to the set of speeches Bush is about to give, if his remarks at a recent fundraiser for Lynn Swann are any indication, I'm going to get my wish. If we withdraw from Iraq, Bush warned, the "enemy will follow us home." Now was that so hard?
--Ezra Klein
