On Wolf Blitzer’s CNN program today, Major General William Caldwell talked about an al-Qaeda plot to slaughter Iraqi schoolchildren, mostly young girls.

The idea was to blow up propane tanks and artillery shells — to turn the school into what Caldwell called “a death trap” for dozens of Iraqi kids. American troops uncovered the plot and stopped it.

BLITZER: “You suspect al Qaeda was responsible for this plot?” CALDWELL: “Well, we do. We do because of the nature in which this thing had been put together—the sophistication in which it would have been pulled and laid out. I mean it was so well done and so well placed in the school areas. And we’re just fortunate that these young troopers happened to stumble across the wire on the other side of the street…” BLITZER: “U.S. Army Major General William Caldwell speaking with us just a little while ago from Baghdad. Thank God that plot was thwarted.”

Yes, Wolf, quite right. Thank God and thanks also to the U.S. troops who prevented this atrocity. Or does someone want to make the case that this would have been an act of “resistance” to American occupation?

We are at war with al-Qaeda. That means we must fight al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda’s most lethal terrorists are in Iraq. Our choices are (1) to stay and fight them or (2) retreat and let them win, let them massacre school girls to their heart’s content and do whatever else they choose in Iraq.

Watch the interview of Wolf’s interview here.