With great respect, I was equally jarred by Mr. Buckley’s passage before the one Mark highlights, to wit: “If success in Iraq would bring an end to the movement of which Iraq is now the apex, the answer would clearly be yes. Has the president persuasively argued that it would do so? No….”

First, the international terror network led by al Qaeda has nodes and state sponsors in several countries. There is, clearly, no single place where “success … would bring an end to the movement.” If this is to be the test, it will forever be an excuse not to attack the enemy militarily. We tried that from 1993 through 9/11 — with insignificant exceptions in 1998. The result was that the enemy hit us repeatedly, our failure to respond emboldened it and caused its membership both to grow and become more capable (as will happen if there is no military threat — such that the training camps operate with impunity and the network is able to set up stable command-and-control).

The military campaign in Iraq has been difficult, we are suffering reversals in Afghanistan, and there are many places we have left untouched. There is much reason to be discouraged. But nonetheless, we have not been hit again since 9/11. That is still more important than the difficulties and reversals. And the best (though by no means the only) explanation for that is that dead and captured terrorists don’t carry out attacks — and when you nullify the top leaders, you stop multiple attacks and you cause those leaders to be replaced by less capable people, making the enemy less efficient overall. For whatever reason, the Bush administration does not give us casualty figures, but I’ll wager that, in any given week in Iraq, we neutralize more jihadists than the 29 we took out in the eight years prior to 9/11.

Finally, one can agree with Mr. Buckley’s assessment that the president has often failed to make persuasive arguments and still respectfully disagree with what is to be gleaned from that. This has been a communications challenged administration. The ties between Iraq and al Qaeda may be the best example. The fact that the administration fails to make a case does not mean there is not a case to be made.