Time Magazine: How Bush Plans to Repackage the War

With progress elusive in Iraq and elections looming at home, the President launches a grueling road show to remind voters of the stakes. But the Dems plan a diversion

At the Salt Palace convention hall in Salt Lake City, President Bush faces an audience of military veterans, standing before a backdrop depicting iconic scenes from wars past: "Spreading freedom is the work of generations, and no one knows it better than you," he tells them. "Freedom has contended with hateful ideologies before. We defeated fascism; we defeated communism; and we will defeat the hateful ideology of the terrorists who attacked America."

Of the fallen, the President says: "We owe them something. We will finish the task that they gave their lives for."

Those words were spoken a year ago, when the President addressed the convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. At that time, 1,871 U.S. military personnel had been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

Last week at the same venue, the President had a strikingly similar message for the American Legion, before a backdrop showing iconic scenes of past wars: "As veterans, you have seen this kind of enemy before. They're successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists, and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be: This war will be difficult; this war will be long; and this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists and totalitarians, and a victory for the cause of freedom and liberty."

Read the rest at Time