THE SPEECH; First, let's deal with some Lefty smoke which is always spouted by the Left Press in these "conferences".

1. "Mercenaries in Iraq" is another example of the sleepy White House and Republican Party in general. The response to the initial charge made by the Left elite should have been instant. Everybody knows the Media will pick up every Democratic charge and blast it all over the country. Fact: the "mercenaries" include all the support including cooks, all transportation, guarding the oil fields, guarding the "press", and tons of other support needed so we can free up troops for combat. The 20,000 support people have now become "mercenaries" because the stupid Republicans allowed Hillary and the boys to define it so. Bush didn't explain this.

2. The "statement then question" format allows us to see the Left tactics from the core Left news people. It was clear from the "reporters" that the Left agenda now is to get the administration to "apologize" like that great patriot Richard Clarke did. This will be a campaign theme. It also looks like the "Viet Nam" thing has worn out; from the questions asked it seems like the Left will switch to blaming Bush completely for 9/11.

We have to take Bush at his word. We are in Iraq to create a free society. The result of a free society will be a more secure U.S.

Iraq will either be a peaceful democratic country or it will again be a source of violence, a haven for territory, and a threat to America and to the world. By helping secure a free Iraq, Americans serving in that country are protecting their fellow citizens.

A by product of this "freedom" will be the abandonment of terror by other countries and he named Lybia as an example. He named Pakistan as a friend without mentioning Mushariff, (in order to save the guy's life) and Afghanistan.

Does Iraq really want freedom or do they really want a Muslim state? We will see. Bush has to walk a narrow line in order to run for office while fighting a war. He cannot give the Left any more ammunition than the clearly partisan 9/11 commission already has. He cannot publicly state that the real problem is the Muslim religion. He cannot wax philosophical about the history of the Middle East on national TV. He cannot talk about the hopelessly corrupt UN and the thieves in Russia, France, and Germany. He was not asked about North Korea so the Left doesn't want that on the table. He wasn't asked about the North Korea, China, weapons feed into the Middle East, nor was he asked about our wonderful "allies", which could mean that the Left doesn't want to talk about the corrupt bastards.

All in all I feel he said all he could say without ruffling the feathers of our "allies" and giving the Left an excuse to attack him. Taking Bush at his word, we are only in Iraq to create (impose) a free society. I thought this was a good moment for our President. He did a good job.