I think he needs to do more of this. He has nothing to lose, really.
I actually think actions speak louder than words, so I am fine with GWB going on the offense against terrorism abroad but allowing freedom of expression / criticism here. What I don't think we should do is mistake this Administration's determination to fight and, most importantly, clear and correct identification of the threat - e.g., the following from VP Cheney:
"Terrorists were at war with our country long before 2001. And for many years, they were the ones on the offensive. They grew bolder in their belief that if they killed Americans, they could change American policy. In Beirut in 1983, terrorists killed 241 of our service members. Thereafter, U.S. forces withdrew from Beirut. In Mogadishu in 1993, terrorists killed 19 American soldiers. Thereafter, U.S. forces withdrew from Somalia. The decade of the '90s saw many more attacks: the bombing at the World Trade Center in 1993; the murders at the Saudi Arabian National Guard Training Center in Riyadh in 1995; the killings at the Khobar Towers in 1996; the simultaneous bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, which cost the lives of some 17 American sailors.
Over time, the terrorists came to believe that they could strike America with relative impunity. There was, among policy makers, a tendency to treat terror attacks as individual criminal acts, to be handled primarily through law enforcement. Consider the example of Ramzi Yousef, who participated in and perpetuated the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The U.S. government tracked him down, arrested him, and got a conviction. After he was sent to serve a 240-year sentence in a federal prison, some might have thought, case closed. But we now know that behind that one man, Ramzi Yousef, was a growing network with operatives inside and outside the United States, waging war against our country. That 1993 attack was probably the first al Qaeda attack on the U.S. homeland.
Six people died in the '93 attack on the World Trade Center. Eight years later, the casualties ran into the thousands. We know to a certainty that terrorists will kill as many innocent people as they possibly can, limited only by the means at their disposal. We know, as well, from the training manuals we found in Afghanistan and from the interrogations of terrorists we have captured that they are doing everything they can to gain the ultimate weapons: chemical, biological, radiological, and even nuclear weapons. Should they ever acquire such weapons, they would use them without any constraint of reason or morality. Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of lives as the result of a single attack, or a set coordinated of attacks.
Remembering what we saw on 9/11, and knowing the nature of these enemies, we have as clear a responsibility as could ever fall to government: We must do everything in our power to keep terrorists from gaining weapons of mass destruction.
This urgent responsibility has required, above all, a shift in America's national security strategy. There are certain moments in history when the gravest threats reveal themselves. And in those moments, the response of our government must be swift, and it must be right.
September 11th has been aptly compared to December 7, 1941 -- another day in our history that brought sudden attack, national emergency, and the beginning of a sustained conflict. Perhaps a closer analogy can be drawn, not to the days of Franklin Roosevelt and World War II, but to the decisions that faced Harry Truman at the outset of the Cold War.
Within a few years, after Germany and Japan surrendered, Truman and his advisers saw the rise of new dangers. Imperial communism presented a challenge of global reach, demanding a comprehensive, long-term response on many fronts. President Truman made clear at the outset that the United States recognized the danger, and that -- for the sake of future generations, we would face it squarely. In a short time, our government created the architecture of national security we know today: the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council. To defend ourselves and free Europe, the United States helped to found NATO. To build and strengthen new democracies, our government led in the reconstruction of Japan, and devoted the present-day equivalent of over $100 billion to European assistance through the Marshall Plan. And when aggression occurred on the Korean Peninsula, it was President Truman's decision and America's sacrifice that saved South Korea.
All those early commitments, made by one President and carried forward by eight of his successors, helped to bring victory in the Cold War, and unprecedented success for the cause of freedom. In this new century, facing new dangers, the commitments we make will also be decisive. President Bush has recognized this from the beginning. And by the strategy he has set for our government, we will overcome the threats of our own time, and, as the President has said, advance the cause of freedom and the peace that freedom brings."
January 14, 2004 - Remarks by the Vice President
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040114-7.html