Isn't doing the same thing and expecting different results the definition of insanity? Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences: In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned. This time, we'll have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter those neighborhoods -- and Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.
If this was a problem before was the Republican Congress preventing you from increasing troop levels? If there has been political and sectarian interference, what does our decision making have to do with that? I have to wonder if the whole point of this is simply to be contrarian so that they can later argue that everything would be OK if they had been listened to. This ignores that fact that things would be much better if they hadn't been listened to in the first damn place. Transcript of President's Address to the Nation | 
