'A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR'
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
August 23, 2005
President Bush yesterday went before the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to warn that Iraqi-based terrorists are "trying to shake our will" — but that "a policy of retreat and isolation will not bring us safety."
In the first of two speeches this week to military-affiliated organizations, the president underscored yet again the need to stay the course in Iraq.
All the more so, he said, when the terrorists are trying to "intimidate America and the free world" and "drive nations into retreat," knowing full well that televised "images of their brutality will horrify civilized peoples."
And he reminded his listeners of what is not stressed on the evening news broadcasts: That
"more than eight million citizens [of Iraq] defied the
car bombers and killers and voted in free elections."
Significantly, the president's speech coincided with what was expected to be completion of a draft agreement on the first post-Saddam Iraqi constitution — a development, Bush rightly noted, that
"will be a landmark event in the history of Iraq, in the
history of the Middle East."
At the last minute, however, a vote on the draft was put off for three days in hopes of building a stronger consensus.
Yes, it seems that the final document will be flawed.
But as the president pointed out, the difficulties Iraq has had in reaching a consensus mirrors America's own problems in adopting a constitution more than two centuries ago.
"Our Constitutional Convention was home to political
rivalries and general disagreements," he said. "The
Constitution our founders produced has been amended many
times over." Americans, in other words, "understand the
challenge facing the framers of Iraq's new constitution."
Which is why it is so important that America's will not waver in Iraq.
To those who have raised questions about our mission in Iraq, Bush insisted that
"our military strategy is straightforward: As Iraqis
stand up, Americans will stand down. And when Iraqi
forces can defend their freedom by taking on more and
more of the fight to our enemy, our troops will come home
with the honor they have earned."
That may not be enough to placate some of the president's critics, or those who — like GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel, a decorated Vietnam vet who has raised comparisons to that divisive conflict — are showing signs of wavering.
But in speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bush was sending a specific message to a specific audience. Those who heard him yesterday were those who "stepped forward when America needed you. You triumphed over brutal enemies, liberated continents and answered the prayers of millions."
Today's soldiers, the president was saying, are doing no less in Afghanistan and Iraq. And though the outcome seems uncertain, we owe it to them to stand firm in support of their mission.
This may be "a different kind of war," as the president said. But it requires the same unwavering commitment that in the past has made America victorious.
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