October 30, 2003 - We went to war to stop the Iraqi regime from using its weapons of mass destruction. We went to war because it had become clear that Hans Blix and his cadre of UN weapons inspectors could not break through the Iraqi ring of secrecy surrounding the Iraqi weapons programs. We went to war to snuff out what the President called the "gathering danger" posed to this nation; its friends; and Iraq 's neighbors. We went to war; raced to Baghdad ; toppled the Hussein regime's statues; and made Iraq safe for democracy.

Now, six months later, having achieved regime change in a few short weeks we have created a new paradigm in the Middle East . The Secretary of Defense says that we lack the "metrics" to determine whether or not the United States is winning the war on terrorism. But we should not worry. The President has found the metrics. They were there all the time. It is just that we neither recognized the measuring tape nor understood how to use it. The President has cut through the fog of war and found the proper measure.

Each dead soldier; each Bradley fighting vehicle or Abrams tank destroyed; each building shuddered in the shock wave of an explosion marks an American success in the President's war, Each wounded American or Spaniard or Britain or Ukrainian demonstrates the success of America's effort and the desperation of the suicide bombers and the evil doers who sent them. By the President's measure we are winning the war on terrorism with each new act of terrorism into which we provoke our adversaries. (By that measurement the Palestinian insurgency is on its last legs and Israel long ago won its own war on terrorism.) The metrics are there. If you seek to find America 's victories then all you have to do is count the coalition dead. There are more than 400 victories for the President to celebrate.

There was the victory this week that shook the International Red Cross and drove that neutral humanitarian agency out of town. There was the victory last month that killed the UN Chief of Mission and all but shut down the international body's operations in Baghdad . There are the repeated victories on the highway to the airport and in the Sunni Triangle.

The President unselfishly wants to share the fruits of these victories with the Iraqi people. He instructed the Pentagon to speed up the deployment of Iraqi security forces even if it means that they must enter the fray ill trained and ill equipped. America is a generous country and we wish to share the results of our successes - one body bag at a time.