"....The strength of a great leader, Martin Gilbert suggests, is his ability to frame the horrific realities of war within a larger moral vision. In this regard, no political figure of the 20th century possessed both the bearing and the eloquence of Winston Churchill. None understood better why Hitler and his ideology had to be confronted - and utterly defeated...
For all his faults, President Bush sees correctly what is now at stake in Iraq: The forces of decency and democracy against the macabre vision of al Qaeda and Islamic fascism. His determination to stay the course is grounded in a set of moral and democratic ideals. "As we fight the war on terror in Iraq and other fronts, we must keep in mind the nature of the enemy," Bush told Air Force graduates two years ago. "The terrorists who attacked our country on September 11, 2001 were not protesting our policies. They were protesting our existence." He has repeated the message, in various forms, dozens of times. He did so again during his recent visit to Baghdad, in a commencement address this week to the U.S. Merchant Marines, and at a Republican fundraiser. "We're going to win the war on terror," Bush said, "if we don't lose our nerve."
As the debate in Congress makes painfully clear, too many war critics still fail to admit the blackness of the threat - the hideous inhumanity of radical Islam - that confronts us in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world. Without this moral realism, detractors have allowed their qualms about the conflict to degenerate into fatalism and defeatism. No surprise, then, that they now lack the resolve to carry on.
It was once said of Winston Churchill that he had "enough courage for everybody." Churchill's steadfastness, however, must not be confused with empty bravado. His strength of character was rooted in his life experience, moral clarity, and spiritual conviction. We will need more of that courage in the difficult days ahead, not less."
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