Harvard-trained historian Richard F. Miller, author of In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches in History, wrote a guest post for Jules Crittenden’s blog about President Barack Obama’s West Point speech. His assessment: it a “midst of war” speech, and not a good one.

The most important convention these sorts of speeches is first, simplicity of message (e.g., attack, retreat, hold) and next, consistency of message. The latter is key — time and attention spans are short. When a civilian commander, versus a NCO, gives such a speech, multiple audiences have to be accounted for — friends, allies, enemies, fence sitters, etc. This actually puts nuance at a severe discount — clarity is key. Battle speeches are not diplomacy. The same message must be received by all constituencies.

Given the foregoing, but not addressing the policy merits, Obama’s speech was a failure. It transgressed both simplicity and consistency with its call for a July 2011 terminus (since walked backwards and forwards by a variety of administration shills).

The speech was too long, and its length was spent badly. Where he might have outlined some basic tactics (a key according to SLA Marshall) he was silent about details — the numbers matter less than what one does with the troops. (Here both Bush and Petraeus excelled in defining broadly where and how new force would be applied.) Consistency also fell short because he reproached his predecessor, an gratuitous distraction from his message.

There’s more, so be sure to read the whole thing. It’s one of the best analyses ever of an Obama-speech.

As for my opinion: Obama made a tragic mistake by announcing a deadline for withdrawal. It will embolden the Taliban, who now know they only have to hang in there for a mere 18 months more. After that period, they can take on the relatively weak Afghan government, who will not be able to count on US support from then onwards.

Add to the above that a report in the New York Times published recently, says both the Afghan and the Pakistani governments are panicking because of Obama’s infamous West Point speech, and we’ve got a real mess on our hands. Not exactly what we needed at this point in time, to put it mildly.