The Downing Street Memo is more water pistol than smoking gun, as even Michael Kinsley has noted. Debating the U.S. decision to intervene in Iraq in 2003 is plain off-point, after the battle has been joined. And especially now that al Qaeda has swarmed the place.

The flailing hyperbole about the Downing Street Dud is of a piece with the desperate Gitmo Gotcha meme.

All the same, President George W. Bush needed to explain anew to the American people why we're still in Iraq, and under what conditions we're getting out.

Bush gave a strong speech to the nation tonight about why we have to fulfill our commitment in Iraq; about the U.S. role in training Iraqi security forces to better "stand up, so we can stand down;" and why not to set an "artificial deadline" for leaving. I watched, and was impressed. Here's the CNN transcript, which includes Bush's airtight rationale for taking out the bad guys.

The terrorists who attacked us and the terrorists we face, murder in the name of a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. Their aim is to remake the Middle East in their own grim image of tyranny and oppression by toppling governments, by driving us out of the region and by exporting terror. To achieve these aims, they have continued to kill: in Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali and elsewhere.

...After September the 11th, I made a commitment to the American people: This nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom. We will take the fight to the enemy...There is only one course of action against them: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home.

...Our mission in Iraq is clear: We're hunting down the terrorists. We're helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We're advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. We are removing a source of violence and instability and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren. The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous. Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real....It is worth it. And it is vital to the future security of our country. And tonight I will explain the reasons why.

....Our military reports that we have killed or captured hundreds of foreign fighters in Iraq who have come from Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and others. They are making common cause with criminal elements, Iraqi insurgents and remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime who want to restore the old order. They fight because they know that the survival of their hateful ideology is at stake.

They know that as freedom takes root in Iraq, it will inspire millions across the Middle East to claim their liberty as well. And when the Middle East grows in democracy and prosperity and hope, the terrorists will lose their sponsors, lose their recruits and lose their hopes for turning that region into a base for attacks on America and our allies around the world.

Some wonder whether Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Among the terrorists, there is no debate. Here are the words of Osama bin Laden: "This third world war is raging" in Iraq. "The whole world is watching this war." He says it will end in "victory and glory or misery and humiliation."

If I were Osama, I'd be worried about "humiliation," too. It'll happen sooner once the Syrians get their border under control.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 28, 2005 09:42 PM