A lot could be said about the president's "major address" this morning, but most of it boils down to two things. First, he's still using the same tired talking points he's used since September 12, 2001. The terrorists hate us for our freedom, we didn't do anything that would cause Muslims not to like us, they want to kill everybody, weapons of mass destruction, etc., etc.. While such stubborn consistency is to be admired, I suppose, it's not clear that this message has put us in any better a position in the world than we were in four years ago.

Second, many things he attributes to the bad guys could also be said of us. For example, he said this about Iraq:

The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses.

Isn't that the idea behind why we're in Iraq in the first place? You know, how installing "freedom" in Iraq will inspire the "Muslim masses" to rise up and cause it to flower throughout the Middle East? Is he saying that whoever takes over Iraq will cause the "masses" to suddenly do something radical? Does he really believe the "masses" are that gullible and easily led?

There's lots of other examples of this throughout the speech. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to find them.

Finally, I must note the irony of him giving this speech at the National Endowment for Democracy, which among other things was supporting the failed 2002 coup in Venezuela, which is certainly a novel approach for democracy, much like invading a country and enforcing democracy at gunpoint.