Anbar as Gettysburg

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday and made a point by heading to the once embattled Iraqi city, which some are now referring to as the "Anbar Awakening". Fred Kagan agrees and compares it to a major turning point in America's Civil War:

It has been one of the most violent provinces in Iraq, and one of
the most dangerous for American soldiers and Marines, until recently. Now it is
one of the safest — safe enough for the war cabinet of the United States of
America to meet there with the senior leadership of the government of Iraq to
discuss strategy. Instead of talking about how to convince the Anbaris that the
Sunni will not retake power in Iraq any time soon, Bush, Maliki, Petraeus,
Talabani, and Crocker talked about how to get American and Iraqi aid and
reconstruction money flowing more rapidly to the province as a reward for its
dramatic and decisive turn against AQI and against the Sunni rejectionist
insurgency. In any other war, with any other president, this event would be
recognized for what it is: the sign of a crucial victory over two challenges
that had seemed both unconquerable and fatal. It should be recognized as at
least the Gettysburg of this war, to the extent that counterinsurgencies can
have such turning points.

This then, must be Bush's Gettysburg Address. Also, Hot Air has the video of Bush with the troops.