President Bush is intensifying his rhetoric on the Iraq war.  So is Rumsfeld.   Mencius replies:

Talk is easy when you don’t have to get the job done. (136).

     They are not trying to "get the job done," which would require a significant change in strategy or tactics, which, in turn, would require an admission that the original strategy and tactics had failed.  They will not admit to such errors; so, we are stuck with heightened rhetoric with no substantive effort to "get the job done."   And they are politically free – at least personally – to do this until January 20, 2009.  Talk is easy…

UPDATE: David Weigel thinks that Rumsfeld’s "I’m OK, you’re and appeaser" line is not going to work.  Let’s hope so.