Bush advisers have concluded that public opinion about the Vietnam War]shifted after opinion leaders signaled that they no longer believed the United States could win in Vietnam.Most devastating to public opinion, the advisers believe, are public signs of doubt or pessimism by a president, whether it was Ronald Reagan after 241 Marines, soldiers and sailors were killed in a barracks bombing in Lebanon in 1983, forcing a U.S. retreat, or Bill Clinton in 1993 when 18 Americans were killed in a bloody battle in Somalia, which eventually led to
the U.S. withdrawal there.The more resolute a commander in chief, the Bush aides
said, the more likely the public will see a difficult conflict through to the
end.
Uh, Reagan and Clinton both acted like mature adults and pulled out of their “neat adventures” because they realized that the American people in turn realized that there was no further point to continuing the conflicts they were engaged in. To have continued to “be resolute” in face of the obvious fact that neither conflict was serving any useful purpose would have been stupid.
CRAWFORD,
Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Saturday said the United States will not lose its nerve and prematurely withdraw troops from Iraq, which he said would betray that country as its leaders finish a critical act of democracy in writing a constitution.
``The terrorists cannot defeat us on the battlefield. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve. That will not happen on my watch,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address.
``Withdrawing our troops from Iraq prematurely would betray the Iraqi people, and would cause others to question America's commitment to spreading freedom and winning the war on terror,'' Bush said in the radio ddress.
``So we will honor the fallen by completing the mission for which they gave their lives, and by doing so we will ensure that freedom and peace prevail,'' he said.
Notice that these words of the President do not directly address Ms Sheehan’s question, which is:I said I want the president to explain what was the noble cause that my son died in, because that's what he said the other day when those 14 marines were killed. He said their families can rest assured that their sons and daughters died for a noble cause. And I said, "What is that noble cause?"
-- Cindy Sheehan
I don’t see any “noble cause” outlined in what the President said above. I see a lot of backing and filling and hemming and hawing. The ideas that Bush outlines are persuasive if on sees Iraq as a board game with plastic markers, not if one sees it as affecting human lives.