THE PRESIDENT'S BIGGEST MISTAKE

The President's biggest mistake, the one that will forever prevent him from being considered a great President is not, as some believe, that he ordered the invasion of Iraq. No, his biggest mistake is that, in the days and weeks following 9/11, he did not mobilize the American people for war. Austin Bay, back in Iraq as a writer after serving there last year as a soldier, says this...

This return visit to Iraq, however, spurs thoughts of America -- to be specific, thoughts about America's will to pursue victory. I don't mean the will of US forces in the field. Wander around with a bunch of Marines for a half hour, spend 15 minutes with National Guardsmen from Idaho, and you will have no doubts about American military capabilities or the troops' will to win.

But our weakness is back home, in front of the TV, on the cable squawk shows, on the editorial page of The New York Times, in the political gotcha games of Washington, D.C.

It seems America wants to get on with its Electra-Glide life, that Sept. 10 sense of freedom and security, without finishing the job. The military is fighting, the Iraqi people are fighting, but where is the US political class? The Bush administration has yet to ask the American people -- correction, has yet to demand of the American people -- the sustained, shared sacrifice it takes to win this long, intricate war of bullets, ballots and bricks.

George W. Bush failed in those days after 9/11 to realize that while the war-fighting would not be traditional in nature...no massed armies engaged in battle, no enemy nation-state to invade and defeat to achieve an obvious victory...the American people still needed to be engaged as if it was a traditional war, like World War II. Bush should have asked Congress to declare war against Al Qaeda (nothing in the Constitution limits Congress from declaring war against non-state actors), and mobilized the American people to fight that war. Bay also realizes this...

One afternoon in December 2001, my mother told me she remembered being a teenager in 1942 and tossing a tin can on a wagon that rolled past the train station in her hometown. Mom said she knew that the can she tossed didn't add much to the war effort, but she felt that in some small, token perhaps, but very real way, she was contributing to the battle.

"The Bush administration is going to make a terrible mistake if it does not let the American people get involved in this war. Austin, we need a war bond drive. This matters, because this is what it will take."

She was right then, and she's right now.

Amen.