The president needed to connect with many audiences last night, and he did.
The message for the enemy in Baghdad -- both Saddamist and Shia radical -- was that the United States will respond to their violence with lethal force, and will fully back the Iraqi Army in the pacification of Baghdad.
Iran had to have heard the distinct threat concerning the networks aiding the terrorists in Iraq. Good. That was long overdue.
The al Qaeda operatives in Anbar got the message that far from having forced America from the field, thousands more marines and soldiers will be coming to the assistance of the local sheiks tired of the foreigners.
Iraq's often quarrelsome political elites got a clear message as well: The clock is ticking, and half-measures will not be tolerated. Baghdad will have three military commanders, and they will not be there to give cover to militias with friends in high places.
Supporters of the war at home heard what they have long hoped to hear: The rules of engagement are changing.
Critics of the war heard that their useful critiques will be welcome, and on a bipartisan basis.
The anti-war zealots heard a polite but firm rejection of their defeatism, and a rebuke of their utter fecklessness about events that would follow an American withdrawal.
And the American military heard, again, that the country needs even more of them. More months away from their families. More casualties. More sacrifice.
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