The Democratic response

I refused to watch Bush on TV, as I do pretty much every year. The Democratic response, however, is another story. I was very happy when Jim Webb defeated George Allen for the U.S. Senate seat from Virginia, although I think it's pretty clear that he's not really my kind of Democrat (too conservative). Still, you can't discount his eloquence here:

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable – and predicted – disarray that has followed....

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

Here's the link to the video of his whole speech.