For three weeks in April the US Marines tightened the noose around Fallujah. They commenced squeezing the insurgent positions in the city. The commander on the ground promised repeatedly that the city would be taken as soon as the isolation of the city was complete. Then the message came from Washington. It was clear, concise and direct. The siege was lifted. The Marine patrols probing closer and closer into Fallujah were withdrawn. The city was turned over to the Fallujah Brigade, made up of the very insurgents that had been firing on US Marines the day before.

For three weeks in August the Marines invested the Mahdi Militia in Najaf. The noose was tightened and the commander on the ground promised that the city would be re-taken in the imminent future, the Mahdi Army destroyed and Al Sadr brought to justice. The fighting was fierce and many Marines gave their lives to tighten the cordon around the insurgents. Then the message came from Washington. It was clear, concise, and direct. The siege was lifted, the city turned over to the Shi`ite leadership and the Marines were withdrawn. The Mahdi Army left Najaf to return to their base in Sadr City.

No, those are not the “mixed messages” the President was referring to. He was referring to Senator Kerry having pointed out that the President’s rosy scenario conflicted with the facts on the ground in Iraq. He was referring to the Senator having pointed out that when Interim Prime Minister delivered the speech that Dan Senor prepared for him and said that Iraq was safe and secure he was painting a picture that did not exist. The “missed messages” that the President is concerned don’t deny the facts in favor of an optimistic assessment of “good progress”.

The President says that he knows that it was Bin Laden who attacked us. Presumably he also knows that Bin Laden is not in Sadr City or Najaf or Samarra or Fallujah. Presumable he knows, roughly, that Bin Laden’s margin is in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. When Senator Kerry points that out he says it is another “mixed message”

Six more Americans have been killed in Iraq since the last count was released on October 1st. It is another mixed message to recognize that their sacrifice has not brought us one step closer to bringing Bin Laden to justice in either this world or the next? Is it another mixed message to recognize that the war in Iraq cannot be won when the politicians in Washington continue to restrain the warriors it sent to the field? Is it a “mixed message” to point out that we are not winning the war in terror in the alleys of Sadr City and risk losing it altogether if we stay this mistaken course. Is it a “mixed message” to point out that of the President’s Axis of Evil one country has acquired nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them; the second has theater ballistic missiles and is on the threshold of building a bomb; and the third – a toothless tiger – has us embroiled in chaos with no clear way out and all on the President’s watch. Is that a “mixed message”? Or is it the simple truth?