What noble cause? What task?

Jeff Huber makes an important point:

Mister Bush, standing at the podium, preparing to address a chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars on the need to "stay the course" in Iraq. I couldn't resist. I turned the TV off.

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But I heard and read plenty about his speech this morning. Long on abstract platitudes like "honor the sacrifices," "stay on the offensive," and "finish the task." Short on specifics like what exactly the "task" is or by what measures we might consider it "finished." And certainly no revelations on why we started it in the first place.

This gets to the heart of Cindy Sheehan's question. What is the noble cause we are fighting for in Iraq? What is the task we must finish? How will we know when it is done? When it's finished, are all our troops going to come home? At what cost (American and Iraqi) will we continue to fight? How many American deaths is too many...2,000? 3,000? 10,000? 33,000? 57,000? 400,000?

Until Bush defines the "task" succinctly with measurable milestones, America will not believe him when he says we must finish it.

P.S.: Kevin Drum provides a good list of things Bush could do to shore up support for the war. He notes, "[Y]ou can't announce a big speech and then say the same old thing over and over again. It ain't working."