President wisely using 'bully pulpit'

President Bush has taken back the offensive in the war on terror - not from the enemy abroad, which has been on defense for four years as a result of the president's aggressive strategy - but from the war critics at home, who have loudly bemoaned their unwillingness to see American lives lost on behalf of Iraqi freedom.

Last week, the Iraqis themselves went to the polls in huge numbers, and confirmed what the president has said all along - that self-determination is not an American value, but a human value. There is no assurance that the Iraqis will always make good choices, but at least now their mistakes will be their own.

With a series of recent speeches and a news conference, President Bush has gone straight to the American public to promote the progress being made in Iraq - politically, militarily and socially. That country has gone through a veritable sea-change in just two years.

But even more important than confirming the importance of the Iraqi elections, the president gave renewed emphasis Sunday night in his nationally televised speech to the underlying goals of his Mideast strategy. He did so with humility and assurance - tackling head-on, for instance, the charge that U.S. military presence in Iraq is "creating more problems than we're solving."

The president said that depends on your view of the war on terror and that, "If you think the terrorists would become peaceful if only America would stop provoking them, then it might make sense to leave them alone."

But, the president continued, "That is not the threat I see. I see a global terrorist movement that exploits Islam in the service of radical political aims - a vision in which books are burned, and women are oppressed and all dissent is crushed….

"The terrorists do not merely object to American actions in Iraq and elsewhere, they object to our deepest values and our way of life. And if we were not fighting them in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Southeast Asia, and in other places, the terrorists would not be peaceful citizens; they would be on the offense, and headed our way."

This is what millions of Americans believe, and many of them had grown disheartened in recent months - not because they were afraid of the fight, but because it seemed as though the president had lost his focus.

Social Security? Medicare? The price of gas? All of those are important, but Congress has the responsibility and capacity to solve many of those domestic problems. Only the president, on the other hand, can act with sufficient discipline and force to be an effective leader in foreign affairs and national security.

That's why many of us are glad that the president has decided to use the bully pulpit of the White House once again to press home the urgency and importance of fighting the war on terror. Let Congress solve the Social Security crisis, and let the president stay focused on the task he has had since America's wake-up call on Sept. 11, 2001.

"On that day we were not in Iraq, we were not in Afghanistan, but the terrorists attacked us anyway - and killed nearly 3,000 men, women and children in our own country," the president said. "My conviction comes down to this: We do not create terrorism by fighting the terrorists; we invite terrorism by ignoring them. And we will defeat the terrorists by capturing them abroad, removing their safe havens, and strengthening new allies like Iraq and Afghanistan in the fight we share."

We know that not everyone agrees with the administration's strategy, but it is hard to imagine how the president can retreat from the battlefield in Iraq when the larger war between terror and civilization is yet undecided.

Again, the president's words expressed the consequences of retreat eloquently:

"We would abandon our Iraqi friends and signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word. We would undermine the morale of our troops by betraying the cause for which they have sacrificed. We would cause the tyrants in the Middle East to laugh at our failed resolve, and tighten their repressive grip. We would hand Iraq over to enemies who have pledged to attack us, and the global terrorist movement would be emboldened and more dangerous than ever before. To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor, and I will not allow it."

Those are powerful words, but to be most effective they need the power of the American people behind them. As the president said, "the need for victory is larger than any president or political party, because the security of our people is in the balance."