The Bush administration might still stay the course, but they won’t say so anymore.

The White House announced President George W. Bush has scratched the phrase “stay the course” from his Iraq rhetoric.

According to The New York Times, the move away from the phrase is an effort to create more flexibility after Iraq faced its most violent month to date.

In fact, with 85 U.S. troops dead, October has been the bloodiest month so far since November 2004.

“Stay the course” was originally a promise that the United States would remain in Iraq until it became a free, democratic nation.

Instead, it has become a term targeted by Democrats as empty propaganda, much like the “Mission Accomplished” banner raised above a flight deck in 2003. The term has been widely satirized by comedians and pundits and holds little value as a viable plan of action anymore.

But are Democrats’ attacks the only reason the Bush administration deserted “stay the course?”

Apparently so.

The White House recently dismissed a claim made by the Times that the administration would provide a timetable for the Iraqi government to take control of the region. And Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top military commander in Iraq, has even said he might call more troops the area in an attempt to quell the recent outbreak of violence.

But Bush had a hard time finding the right words to define “stay the course” at an Oct. 11 press conference.

“Stay the course means keep doing what you’re doing,” he said. “My attitude is, don’t do what you’re doing if it’s not working; change.”

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow commented on the discarded phrase saying: “It left the wrong impression about what was going on and it allowed critics to say, ‘Well, here’s an administration that’s just embarked upon a policy and not looking at what the situation is,’ when, in fact, it is the opposite.”

So is this all were left with? A change in rhetoric?

We have followed the same course for so long, and it has obviously run aground. This course has led to thousands of U.S casualties and countless Iraqi deaths.

The American people deserve more than a change in wording. They deserve an honest-to-goodness reassessment of the course we stayed.