Critical astigmatism

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"Fahrenheit 9/11," Moveon.org, Anonymous, Richard Clarke and now the Newsweek story about alleged desecration of the Koran -- all these current sensations have been used in the Middle East to proclaim the supposed sins of the U.S. administration. Even when Americans consider President Bush's foreign policy might just be working, he is still caricatured by critics and the media, here and abroad, as a clueless Inspector Clouseau who trips around and only stumbles into his good luck. How accurate is that cartoon?

Just imagine if George Bush had predicted to us on the morning after September 11, 2001, what actually ended up happening. He might have delivered the following speech:

"Ours is not a war on Muslims or the Arab world. Rather, we are in a struggle against a new fascism that resorts to terror. Osama bin Laden must distort Islam and deflect blame onto the United States for the self-inflicted miseries of the Middle East, created by its own illiberal dictatorships.

"Therefore, American strategy is three-pronged:

"We will hunt down terrorist cells in the United States that due to our laxity have already infiltrated the West.

"America will remove rogue regimes abroad that have funded and supported these killers.

"In their places, the United States will support consensual governments to ensure a third choice other than just Islamic theocracy or brutal dictatorship.

"First, we must go on the offensive. In less than a month, our forces will go to faraway Afghanistan and remove the Taliban within six weeks upon arrival. From that victory, democracy will follow for all Afghans, regardless of tribe or gender.

"Some regimes openly sanction terrorists. Others have entered secretive alliances with them. Saddam Hussein has violated all his past international agreements and murdered thousands of his own and others across his borders. The Senate no doubt will sanction his removal because he is an enemy of the United States, subsidizing antidemocratic terrorists from the West Bank to Kurdistan. In three weeks, we can liberate Iraq from Saddam's Ba'athist nightmare and stay to help the long-suffering Iraqis secure their freedom under a new democracy.

"Pakistan has been hostile, but its cooperation is vital to dismantle al Qaeda. We must win President Pervez Musharraf to the side of civilization and prod him to reform. Such cooperation is fraught with danger. It demands exposure of the nuclear proliferator A.Q. Khan and cessation of his efforts to spread nuclear weapons worldwide.