The Wall Street Journal
FROM BAGHDAD TO BIN LADEN
Support Our Troops
Iraq isn't part of the war on terror? Try telling the soldiers that.
BY PAUL WOLFOWITZ
Tuesday, September 2, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT

When terrorists exploded a bomb outside a shrine in Najaf last week, they
killed scores of Muslims who had gathered for prayers--including one of
Iraq's foremost Shiite leaders, who had been playing a key role in
stabilizing post-Saddam Iraq. Similarly, when a bomb detonated in the U.N.
headquarters in Baghdad recently, those killed and injured were innocent men
and women--including Iraqis--who were engaged in the humanitarian mission of
rebuilding Iraq.

But those victims weren't the only targets. Terrorists were aiming a blow at
something they hate even more--the prospect of a country freed from their
control and moving to become an Iraq of, by, and for the Iraqi people.
Terrorists recognize that Iraq is on a course towards self-government that
is irreversible and, once achieved, will be an example to all in the Muslim
world who desire freedom, pointing a way out of the hopelessness that the
extremists feed on. And so, they test our will, the will of the Iraqi
people, and the will of the civilized world.

While we can't yet fix blame for this most recent act of terrorism, we do
know this: Despite their differences, the criminal remnants of Saddam's
sadistic regime share a common goal with foreign terrorists--to bring about
the failure of Iraqi reconstruction and take the country back to the sort of
tyrannical prison from which it has just been freed. The recent broadcast of
a taped message by an alleged al Qaeda spokesman offered congratulations to
"our brothers in Iraq for their valiant struggle against the occupation,
which we support and urge them to continue."

Anyone who thinks that the battle in Iraq is a distraction from the war on
terror should tell it to the Marines of the 1st Marine Division who
comprised the eastern flank of the force that fought its way to Baghdad last
April. When I met recently with their commander, Maj. General Jim Mattis in
Hillah, he said that the two groups who fought most aggressively during the
major combat operations were the Fedayeen Saddam--homegrown thugs with a
cult-like attachment to Saddam--and foreign fighters, principally from other
Arab countries. The exit card found in the passport of one of these
foreigners even stated that the purpose of his "visit" to Iraq was to
"volunteer for jihad."

We face that poisonous mixture of former regime loyalists and foreign
fighters today.

Even before the bombing of the U.N. headquarters, if you'd asked Gen. Mattis
and his Marines, there was no question in their minds that the battle they
wage--the battle to secure the peace in Iraq--is now the central battle in
the war on terrorism. It's the same with the commander of the Army's 1st
Armored Division, Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who recently described that
second group as "international terrorists or extremists who see this as the
Super Bowl." They're going to Iraq, he said, "to take part in something they
think will advance their cause." He added, "They're wrong, of course." Among
the hundreds of enemy that we have captured in the last months are more than
200 foreign terrorists who came to Iraq to kill Americans and Iraqis and to
do everything they can to prevent a free and successful Iraq from emerging.
They must be defeated--and they will be.

Our regional commander, Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command, echoed
Gen. Dempsey, placing in larger perspective the battle in Iraq. He said,
"The whole difficulty in the global war on terrorism is that this is a
phenomenon without borders. And the heart of the problem is in this
particular region, and the heart of the region happens to be Iraq. If we
can't be successful here, we won't be successful in the global war on
terrorism." Success in Iraq will not be easy. According to Gen. Abizaid, it
will be long, hard and sometimes bloody; but "it is a chance, when you
combine it with initiatives in the Arab/Israeli theater and initiatives
elsewhere, to make life better, to bring peace to an area where people are
very, very talented and resources are abundant, especially here in Iraq."

Foreign terrorists who go to Iraq to kill Americans understand this: If
killing Americans leads to our defeat and the restoration of the old regime,
they would score an enormous strategic victory for terrorism--and for the
forces of oppression and intolerance, rage and despair, hatred and revenge.
Iraqis understand this. Alongside us, they are working hard to fight the
forces of anger and hopelessness and to seize this historic opportunity to
move their country forward.

Just as in the Cold War, holding the line in Berlin and Korea was not just
about those places alone. It was about the resolve of the free world. Once
that resolve was made clear to the Soviets, communism eventually collapsed.
The same thing will happen to terrorism--and to all those who have attempted
to hijack Islam and threaten America and the rest of the free world, which
now includes Iraq. They will see our resolve and the resolve of the free
world. Then they, too, will take their place on the ash heap of history.

America's troops and our coalition partners are determined to win--and they
will win, if we continue to give them the moral and material support they
need to do the job. As the president said recently, our forces are on the
offensive. And as Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane said in
congressional testimony, "They bring the values of the American people to
this conflict. They understand firmness, they understand determination. But
they also understand compassion. Those values are on display every day as
they switch from dealing with an enemy to taking care of a family."

I saw the troops in Iraq, and Gen. Keane is absolutely right. I can tell you
that they, above all, understand the war they are fighting. They understand
the stakes involved. And they will not be deterred from their mission by
desperate acts of a dying regime or ideology.

Not long ago, a woman named Christy Ferer traveled to Iraq along with the
USO. She'd lost her husband Neil Levin at the World Trade Center on Sept.
11, and she wanted to say thank you to the troops in Baghdad. She wrote a
wonderful piece about her trip, and in it, she wondered why our soldiers
would want to see her, when they could see the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders,
movie stars and a model. When the soldiers heard that a trio of Sept. 11
family members were there, she found out why.

Young men and women from across America rushed to the trio, eager to touch
them and talk to them. One soldier, a mother of two, told Christy she'd
enlisted because of Sept. 11. Another soldier displayed the metal bracelet
he wore, engraved with the name of a victim of 9/11. Others came forward
with memorabilia from the World Trade Center they carried with them into
Baghdad. And when it was Christy's turn to present Gen. Tommy Franks with a
piece of steel recovered from the Trade Towers, she saw this great soldier's
eyes well up with tears. Then, she watched as they streamed down his face on
center stage before 4,000 troops.

To those who think the battle in Iraq is a distraction from the global war
against terrorism . . . tell that to our troops.

Mr. Wolfowitz is deputy secretary of defense.

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