The answer is "9/11." Now, what's the question?

Can President Bush really think that more invocations of 9/11 will do the trick in convincing Americans that Iraq is a righteous crusade?

In his weekly radio address, Bush gave a preview of what he plans to say over the next several days in an attempt to reclaim the pulpit from Cindy Sheehan. Subtle, it is not.

In a few weeks, our country will mark the four-year anniversary of the attacks of September the 11th, 2001. On that day, we learned that vast oceans and friendly neighbors no longer protect us from those who wish to harm our people. And since that day, we have taken the fight to the enemy.

We have combated terrorists on the home front by disrupting terror cells and their financial support networks. We're fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, striking them in foreign lands before they can attack us here at home. And we're spreading the hope of freedom across the broader Middle East. By advancing the cause of liberty in a troubled region, we are bringing security to our own citizens and laying the foundations of peace for our children and grandchildren.

The answer, no matter what the question, is "9/11."

Were it not so tragic, Bush's reflexive reliance on 9/11 would be laughable. Every other justification for this war has fallen to the ground. The only weapon left in Bush's aresnal is a rhetorical one: continue to relate the invasion of Iraq with the response to the attacks of September 11th; remind Americans of the shock, outrage and fear that they felt on that day; insist that the only way to prevent another such day is to attack other countries before they have the chance to attack us; cast doubt on the patriotism/sanity/morality of opponents and protesters. Repeat.

As Bush tries to re-sell the war this week, however, he confronts an audience whose opinion of the invasion is lower than it was when he left for vacation. The American people have, I suspect, become immune to invocations of September the 11th.

Bush is at a tipping point. He is banking everything on "9/11" not because he wants to, but because he has no choice. He has the opportunity now to win back the people or, I think, to lose them for good. It will interesting to see if they will be swept up once again into the war fever, or if they will realize they are being played for fools.