Making the case

The (Council Bluffs, Iowa) Daily Nonpareil

Faced with declining support for his handling of the war in Iraq, President Bush [last] week gave an impassioned explanation and defense on why the war must be fought and won. ...

While the conduct of the war on terrorism is one part of the equation, the question of whether it should be fought is quite another; and here Bush was eloquent and persuasive. Implicit in the speech was the admission that we are not fighting the war in Iraq for the same reasons we got into it in the first place. ...

The terrorists, "evil but not insane," want to gain control of a country, Bush argued. "With greater economic and military and political power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda: To develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people and to blackmail our government into isolation." We hope the president keeps this chilling prospect in mind next year when the political pressure grows in advance of the elections for a significant reduction of the U.S. presence in Iraq without much regard for what we're leaving behind. ...