President Bush gave a number of optimistic speeches about the war in Iraq this week. He looks at the war and he sees progress. He says he understands why we don’t share the same opinion of the war, why our confidence has been shaken. He blamed the media for showing us only the bad news and not the good. He tells to look to other sources, like the internet for our news. Well I have listened to the TV and the radio, read the papers and the internet, and I don’t see the good news I am looking for. Don’t get me wrong, the opening of hospitals and schools are nice, but the good news that I am looking for is that no soldier was killed today. Every parent of a soldier listens for that news. I want to hear that no bombs exploded, no IED was set; neither soldier, nor insurgent picked up their gun; that the reporter who went to cover the opening of the new hospital and school didn’t need bodyguards and body armor. But the best news, the news I am really waiting for, is that the last American soldier came home today.

Helen Thomas asked the president this question in the press conference, why did we go to war in Iraq? For me, that isn’t the question. The question I need answered is how and when this war will end. All wars end. President Bush, In your optimistic vision of this war, how do you see it ending? You are confident we will win this war, you have a strategy for victory. I have no doubt we can win this war; we have the best army in the world. What I don’t know is when you see it ending? No, I am not asking for a timetable for withdrawal. I am asking about your vision of victory. Before this war began Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said “I cant tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that.” Well the war didn’t end in five days, or five weeks, or five months. And we know from your speech this week that the responsibility for bringing our soldiers home will fall to a future president, so it won’t end in five years. You have said, when the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down. That didn’t happen in five day, or five weeks, or five months, and it won’t happen in five years. When you look at your optimistic vision of the war in Iraq, does your strategy for victory still have us there in fifteen years, in fifty years, in five hundred years? When will Iraq be a peaceful and stable country? When will I hear that good news, the last American soldier has come home?