Battle, Joined

From the Editors of National Review Online:

One of the most stirring lines from Bush's Iraq speech yesterday was his vow, “America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief.” In his response to the speech, John Kerry denounced the line as an attack on a straw man: “No one has ever suggested or believes that we should run in the face of car bombers or assassins.” Oh, really? Almost simultaneously on Capitol Hill, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was endorsing Rep. John Murtha's call for an immediate pullout and vouchsafing that most of his fellow House Democrats support it too. And so the balance of the Democratic party is swinging behind the very position that John Kerry says no one supports...

America now has two choices before it: attempting to see the war through, or running from car bombers and assassins. Bush has staked his claim, and so have the Pelosi Democrats. The battle is joined.