ALL BUT HIDDEN in the middle of President Bush’s nationally televised speech last Thursday was a significant distinction about America’s war against terrorism. “This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with its decisive liberation of territory and its swift conclusion,” Bush said. He might have added that he won’t repeat the mistakes made by the president in Desert Storm. Out of family loyalty Bush couldn’t say this because that president was his father, George H.W. Bush. But Bush junior has thought about those mistakes and already gone out of his way to avoid two of them. More important, he’s put himself in a position to avert a third, which turned out to be the most harmful of his father’s mistakes. That was the failure to finish the job in the Gulf War by deposing Saddam Hussein. In the days since terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Bush has become a wholly different president. Before he wasn’t a rhetorical president able to stir the nation; now he is exactly that. Republicans in Congress used to beg White House aides to get the president to speak out more, to be more like President Reagan. Sorry, they were told, Bush believes that’s not his strength, and he has no intention of trying to be what he isn’t. Bush was wrong about himself. Now, he’s not only adept at delivering a set piece speech, he’s hard to shut up when asked questions by reporters at photo opportunities. His outspokenness has consequences. In Desert Storm, his father never gave a speech to the nation on the reasons for deploying 500,000 troops to the Middle East to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. “Jobs, jobs, jobs”—the crude reason offered by then Secretary of State James Baker—wasn’t satisfactory. One result of Bush senior’s reticence was the collapse of his popular support after the war. He didn’t keep the American people involved. Instead, he led by action—the initial deployment of troops, the buildup, the air war, the land war—and the public responded favorably each time. But most Americans never understood how important it was to achieve at least partial victory. Once the Gulf War was over, they quickly forgot about it and focused on new problems, like the economy. In contrast, President George W. Bush delivers a message to the country every day. He meets in the morning with senior counselor Karl Rove and communications director Karen Hughes to fashion soundbites for public consumption. He’s used colloquialisms to grab attention, phrases like “wanted dead or alive” or his intention to “smoke out” Osama bin Laden. And he’s delivered two major speeches almost flawlessly, the prayer service address and the speech to Congress. Suddenly and surprisingly, Bush has mastered a few of the speechmaker’s tricks. Maybe this has come naturally, a response to challenge. In any case, he was angry at times last Thursday, near tears at others, amused at the cheers for New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and governor George Pataki, and always passionate. My guess is that while his popularity will decline, it will plateau at a fairly high level—that is, assuming the war goes reasonably well. The second mistake Bush avoided was to ignore everything but the war. That’s what his father did, and it produced devastating political repercussions. At the White House now, there’s a “domestic consequences group” headed by Josh Bolten, the deputy chief of staff. Rove plays a major role. The group, guided by economic coordinator Larry Lindsey, developed a package of tax cuts to juice up the economy: advancing the individual rate reductions enacted earlier this year, accelerating depreciation for business, providing tax relief for families of victims and a tax credit to offset payroll taxes. Initially, a capital gains rate reduction was not included, but a White House official indicated it could be added if Democratic congressional leaders agree. With the stock market in free fall, they might. The rule of thumb adopted by Bush is that any stimulus must be approved by both leaders of both parties in both houses. Something will pass, and Bush is likely to escape the tag he’s solely a foreign policy president out of touch with domestic troubles of average Americans. A representative day for Bush was Wednesday, September 19. He held repeated discussions with his national security team. He met with three foreign leaders and held a short session with the media in connection with each meeting. He had phone conversations with several more foreigners. He conferred briefly with his communications advisers. He talked with his speechwriters. He invited congressional leaders for a chat about a fresh tax cut. He discussed an emergency bailout for the airline industry with his advisers. The point here: Unlike his father, Bush is not oblivious to domestic concerns, whether or not they are chiefly a byproduct of the terrorist attacks. As for mistake number three—not finishing the job—Bush senior had an excuse. He was encumbered by a United Nations resolution that authorized the United States and its allies to oust Iraq from Kuwait but not to drive on to Baghdad and wipe out Saddam Hussein’s regime. Bush needed the U.N. cover because he didn’t have overwhelming public support at home for war, especially in the Senate. Bush junior doesn’t have this problem. Americans, except for college faculties and leftist intellectuals, are enthusiastically pro-war. Bush has wisely steered clear of bringing the war on terrorism under U.N. auspices. So he’s free to do the whole job of attacking terrorism and not limit himself to taking out Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Inside the administration, there’s a debate over how extensive the war on terrorism should be. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell have recruited a broad coalition against bin Laden. But many members of the coalition will surely balk at targeting Iraq or Syria or Iran. And the Powell side in the internal debate is reluctant for the United States to go beyond where the coalition is willing to go, especially if the United States might be seen as waging a crusade against Islam. The contrary view, championed by Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, favors a wider war, whether members of the coalition like it or not. Bush hasn’t decided which he prefers and doesn’t need to while concentrating on bin Laden. But he gives every indication he’s ready to fight a wider war against all terrorism aimed at America. In his Oval Office remarks to the press during his meeting with President Megawati of Indonesia, Bush said bringing bin Laden and his gang to justice is merely “the first objective of a very long campaign.” And he noted that nations in the coalition “will contribute in a variety of ways,” not all of them in “overt ways.” So every ally doesn’t have to be publicly involved in every action or even in any of them. The coalition, he implied, is not an end in itself, as Powell seems to believe. In his speech to Congress, Bush described the terrorist enemy in the broadest possible terms: “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” The war “begins” with nailing bin Laden, he said, but doesn’t end there. These were the right words. If Bush follows them up with action, he’ll have a chance to achieve the right result—and avert the incomplete success of his father. Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
