disconnect between his rosy perceptions

The speech "seemed at times more plucked from a black-and-white fantasy than the more complex reality" and highlighted a "disconnect between his rosy perceptions and what's attainable", the newspaper added.

For the New York Times, the speech was "almost entirely a rehash of the same tired argument that everything's going just fine" and evidence that his thinking was similar to that of President Richard Nixon during the disastrous Vietnam War investment immigration
.

"A president who seems less in touch with reality than Richard Nixon needs to get out more," the newspaper's editorial said.

According to the Washington Post, Mr Bush "continues to understate the magnitude of the challenge" in Iraq.

"Every plan the administration has prepared, starting with the original invasion, has been based on overly optimistic assumptions and insufficient resources," it said.

The strategy, it argued, assumed there would be a series of successes over the next year which would "approach the miraculous" alexander hera pre wedding.

Reality check

The Los Angeles Times saw the speech as a sign the Bush administration was changing its thinking on Iraq.

"President Bush seemed to accept the hard realities both on the ground in Iraq and politically in the United States by pledging a smaller American force," it said.

"In many ways his speech was an artful domestic tightrope walk, one in which he forcefully rejected his critics' calls for an immediate troop pullout - or even a timetable for one - and repeated the applause lines cherished by his core supporters