Now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have failed in all their efforts to end the war in Iraq prematurely, there's no time to gloat.
Instead, this reprieve should be viewed by every American who understands the threat we face globally to press the Bush administration to win this war - to pursue victory and to pursue it now!
There are reasons Americans are frustrated by the conflict in Iraq - good reasons. The war has gone on too long. It has lasted longer, in fact, than America's involvement in World War II!
Don't get me wrong; I'm gratified we seem to be making progress at defeating al-Qaida, the real enemy in Iraq. But it should not have taken this long to achieve that objective. We need to recognize this is a result of fighting a politically correct war. It's time to pull out all the stops and destroy the bad guys once and for all.
What does that mean? It means:
- No more frivolous prosecutions of U.S. troops for doing their jobs and doing them right - prosecutions such as those of Lt. Ilario Pantano, Col. Allen B. West and Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani;
- Rescinding our misguided ban on coercive interrogations so we can get the intelligence we need to stop attacks on our troops and on Iraqi civilians;
- Stopping, by any means necessary, the illicit arms flow into Iraq from Iran and Syria;
- Leveling strongholds of the enemy and salting the earth if necessary.
I know I will be branded as a coldhearted killer for making these statements. I know my Christianity will be questioned by some. I don't care.
I know with every fiber of my being, I know deep in my soul, this is the most humane way to fight this conflict - the only humane way. It's the right thing to do, not only for those of us who want to see our troops come home at the earliest opportunity, but also for the Iraqis who want to live in peace and freedom.
This is the way we fought Adolf Hitler and imperial Japan, and it is the way we need to fight today if our goal is victory and if our cause is just.
Quite honestly, we are running out of time. No American wants to see U.S. troops in Iraq 10 years from now. No Iraqi wants to see that, either.
Victory is within our grasp. It's near. But it's not here. Victory is also absolutely essential.
There is no substitute. Anything short of total victory in Iraq will spell defeat for the U.S. and for peace and freedom in the struggle against Islamo-fascism.
Time, however, is not on our side. The longer this low-intensity war continues, the harder victory will be to achieve. There is no moderate way to wage war. War is the employment of lethal force to destroy the enemy. Americans have spent a fortune on building the best armed forces in the world. It's time to unleash them. It's time to use them. It's time to let them do the job they've been trained to do.
I have every confidence our military can prevail if we don't handcuff it, demoralize it and politicize the mission. The mission needs to be clear: Achieve victory by destroying the bad guys. We'll know when we've achieved it - when there are no more improvised explosive devices going off, when there are no more snipers, when there are no more suicide bombers.
I don't think it's that far away. Now, let's finish the job and bring our troops home.
