Magnificent
This was not a Foggy Bottom speech.

September 21, 2001 8:20 a.m.

ush’s speech had passion, logic, and poetry. The only thing that was missing was “the coalition.” This was not a Foggy Bottom speech. Where were the French? Where was the U.N.? The casual listener could be forgiven for concluding that the coalition in this war consists entirely of the U.S. and Britain — as, indeed, it probably will when it really matters.

And that was just one of the magnificent things about Bush’s truly brave performance last night. His address reached an emotional crescendo when he displayed a lost police officer’s badge, his eyes reddening and filling with tears. Bush pledged: “I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent.” He then portrayed the war as a fight between freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, and observed: “God is not neutral between them.” It was a gut-punch of an ending. Bush’s emotion was perfectly pitched to the mood of America, which over the last week has been tearful but resolute, angry but prayerful.

The most important substantive point was that Bush was absolutely clear that he won’t stop at Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Although they will provide a nice start. Bush warned that the Afghan regime can “hand over the terrorists or share their fate” — a not-so-subtle threat of assassination. But that’s not enough. Nations that support terrorism, Bush explained, will henceforth be “regarded as hostile regimes.” That should have gotten their ears burning in Baghdad, Damascus, and Tehran. Bush, in the internal debate in his own administration, appears to be a hardliner, understanding that if he limits his attention to Kabul, his war against terrorism will be unworthy of the name.

I thought that last Friday, as Bush stood atop part of the rubble of the World Trade Center, he came as close as he ever will to delivering a St. Crispin’s Day speech. That spirit and resolve carried over into the House chamber last night, and it was something to behold.