Finally, Bush is standing up and calling the bluff of the anti-war hypocrisy of many in the Democratic party leadership. Here is an excerpt of his remarks today regarding the war on terror.

“While it is perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community’s judgments related to Iraq’s weapons programs. They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. Many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: ‘When I vote to give the President of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat, and a grave threat, to our security.’ That’s why more than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power.

“The stakes in the global War on Terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our Nation is united, and we will settle for nothing less than victory.”

Don Surber says “Finally, he gets up off the mat.”

Pundit Guy: “… blasting the Democrats with both barrels. ”

Scott Ott has the Democrat’s response:

“We had no pre-war intelligence,” said Sen. John Kerry, “History will show that none of the leading Democrats had substantial intelligence. Anyone who remembers what we did then knows that the president is making a baseless allegation. I think history will bear out my contention that we Democrats lacked the intelligence to make such an important decision.”

UPDATE: Full transcript here. And video at Ian’s site.

Michelle: “What took him so long?”

Most Certainly Not: “It’s about time!”

Lorie Byrd:

I think that the timing of this is George W. Bush through and through. He rarely answers his critics when they are screaming. He waits until they work themselves into frothing at the mouth lunatics and lets them make more and more outlandish statements that they later have to try to distance themselves from. Then, when there is an opening in the news cycle, he addresses them on his terms. In this case, in a Veteran’s Day speech.

Glenn:

The White House needs to go on the offensive here in a big way — and Bush needs to be very plain that this is all about Democratic politicans pandering to the antiwar base, that it’s deeply dishonest, and that it hurts our troops abroad.

Don Surber thinks this was Bush’s Gettysburg Address. “These are things that should have been said a long time ago. But like Lincoln in November 1863, Bush had to wait for the right moment.”