THIS IS NOT ->Delawareliberal

Winston Churchill's great strength was his icy realism when surveying events and situations. George Bush keeps a bust of Churchill in the oval office. I wonder why. George Bush is as different from Churchill as a man could be.

George Bush thinks icy realism is too gloomy. He puts his faith, not in facts and figures, but in empty slogans and believes that sunny optimism has a power to overcome incompetence. Bush has shown time and again that he thinks "words speak louder than actions". As if repeating the words, "freedom is on the march" held some kind of magical power. I think he sincerely believes that if all American could agree to chant "freedom is on the march", and wish for freedom to be "on the march" fervently enough - then, Freedom WOULD be on the march.

Many conservatives have indulged Bush in this nonsense, even encouraged it. Even today it is easy to find conservatives at places like JTTR who think that the problem is not that Iraq is a mess - the problem is that the media is REPORTING that Iraq is a mess. This has been called "the tinkerbell" approach to war fighting. Clap harder if you want the fairy to live. Clap harder if you think "freedom is on the march".

At last, the tide has turned and now it is okay to be critical of this President. William F. Buckley was the first out of the gate, then Delathought.

Now we have George Will.

WASHINGTON -- When late in the spring of 1940 people of southeastern England flocked across the Channel in their pleasure craft and fishing boats to evacuate soldiers trapped on Dunkirk beaches, euphoria swept Britain. So Prime Minister Winston Churchill sternly told the nation: "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.''