One thing I liked about Bush’s speech today is that he referred to “the security crisis” in Baghdad. Last week, Ambassador Khalilizad had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that said “Iraq faces an urgent crisis in securing its capital.” I like this language because it frankly describes the situation on the ground without trying to tip-toe around it. Therefore, even though the language is alarming and downbeat, it helps the Bush administration’s cause. It increases its credibility, and the very act of acknowledging the crisis will increase, at least marginally, people’s confidence that the administration will be able to address it (its hard to address something you are ignoring or papering over). For what it’s worth, we have been advocating this kind of shift: “It is time for the Bush administration to acknowledge that its approach of assuring people that progress is being made and operating on that optimistic basis in Iraq isn’t working. It would be much better if it were frankly in crisis mode…”