Three speeches last week captured President Bush's most telling strengths and weaknesses as he presses the war against Saddam Hussein.
Bush's speech Monday night announcing the imminent approach of combat highlighted his best qualities. Speeches the next day by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spotlighted key blind spots in Bush's thinking -- as did some of the president's own words.
On display in Bush's brisk speech were the qualities that arguably have contributed the most to his successes as president: focus and resolve. In domestic and foreign policy, Bush is clear about his goals and relentless in his pursuit of them.
Iraq is no exception. Bush's focus was evident as he made clear that one conviction, above all, carried him into this war: that after Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. cannot allow rogue regimes to develop weapons of mass destruction that they might provide to terrorists.
"The danger is clear," Bush insisted, "using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other."
Having defined the threat, Bush hammered home his determination to attack it. "Before the day of horror can come, before it is too late to act, this danger will be removed," he said.
Listening to those words, it's difficult to imagine that Bush ever believed this confrontation could end in any way other than American missiles lighting up the night sky in Baghdad and troops pouring over the Iraqi border. That insight provides a measure of Bush's resolve. He faced almost unprecedented, resistance from other nations on his path to war. Many presidents might have second-guessed their direction when so many other world leaders questioned it. Yet, for better or worse, Bush drove through every obstacle to reach the point he probably envisioned from the outset -- all-out war to depose Hussein.
That tenacity may be what Bush's supporters admire most about him. Yet it carries a cost. It's easy for resolve and focus to bleed into arrogance and myopia.
In the march to war, and even in his speech, Bush displayed all of those traits, good and bad. The resolve that carried him past so many obstacles sometimes devolved into an inability to hear contrary arguments from skeptics. Likewise, he has been so focused on his immediate goal of removing Hussein that he's sometimes failed to fully recognize the implications of his course, for America's relations with the world and elements of his agenda at home.
