The question was asked over and over again after the September 11 attacks: Why do they hate us?

The answer is the essence of brutal simplicity: Because America is in their way.  And we will stay in their way until they are all defeated and acknowledge America is the rightful leader of the world.

Consider some of the things George Bush told the Legionnaires yesterday [Bush pull quotes are in italics].

We meet today at a critical time for our country. America is engaged in a great ideological struggle -- fighting Islamic extremists across the globe.

Exactly so.  Notice that Bush is no longer shying away from calling them what they are—Islamic extremists.  A good enough approximation to our favorite denotation for those terrorists: Islamofascists.

Perhaps the most important duty that Legion members undertake is to serve as living reminders that a great country has great responsibilities. Once again, America finds itself a nation at war. Once again, we're called to assume the mantle of global leadership.

Note to Evil Leftists and pacifistic, isolationist libertarians: Bush knows what Spiderman knows.  With great power goes great responsibility.  Technology binds the world together in ways unimagined by our forebears, those who believed America could withhold herself from the world and bear no world responsibilities.  September 11 was a brutal reminder of the fact that the world is always with us, so we must always be with the world.

Many people in this country are asking whether the fight underway today is worth it. This is not the first time Americans have asked that question. We always enter wars reluctantly -- yet we have fought whenever dangers came. We fought when turmoil in Europe threatened to shroud the world in darkness. America sent its military to fight two bitter and bloody conflicts -- we did what we had to do to get the job done. We fought when powers in Asia attacked our country and our allies. We sent Americans to restore the peace -- and we did what we had to do to get the job done. And we responded when radicals and extremists attacked our homeland in the first ideological war of the 21st century. We toppled two regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that gave harbor to terrorists, defied the international community, and threatened the security of our nation. And now we're working to help build free and secure societies in their place -- and like the past, we will do what we have to do to get the job done.

One of my favorite jokes was told by an Israeli.  It seems that the ten-year-olds in history class were learning about the time nearly 2,000 years ago when the Second Temple was destroyed by Rome.  The teacher told them of the dispositions of the various powers in the region and their relationships with Israel in the manner in which an American teacher would discuss World War II.  One little boy looked more and more puzzled as the teacher talked.  Finally, the teacher stopped and asked the boy what troubled him.

“But which side were the Americans on?”

American power is ubiquitous in the world.  So much so, that a little Israeli boy might actually assume that we had been around back then, shaping the world of the first century A.D!  We are so tightly intertwined with the peoples of the world that they automatically assume that we will be there in any conflict.  And in a way, they are right.  The only question they ask is which side we will be on.

I want our fellow citizens to consider what would happen if these forces of radicalism and extremism are allowed to drive us out of the Middle East. The region would be dramatically transformed in a way that could imperil the civilized world. Extremists of all strains would be emboldened by the knowledge that they forced America to retreat. Terrorists could have more safe havens to conduct attacks on Americans and our friends and allies. Iran could conclude that we were weak -- and could not stop them from gaining nuclear weapons. And once Iran had nuclear weapons, it would set off a nuclear arms race in the region.

There are no withdrawal options available to us anymore.  The War on Terrorism is not like the Mexican American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I or II, after which America disbanded its armies and sent its men home.  It is more like the Cold War, during which our armies stood guard year after year, decade after decade, until our Communist enemies imploded and crumbled.

Some say Iran's leaders are not aware of what members of their own regime are doing. Others say Iran's leaders are actively seeking to provoke the West. Either way, they cannot escape responsibility for aiding attacks against coalition forces and the murder of innocent Iraqis. The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops. I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities.

If there is any headline news embedded in Bush’s speech, this paragraph holds it.  Bush just served notice to Iran’s regime: Knock it off or we will knock you off.

Unfortunately, some who had complained about a lack of security in Iraq are now attempting to change the terms of the debate. Their argument used to be that security was bad, so the surge has failed. Now their argument seems to be security is better, so the surge has failed. They disregard the political advances on the local level, and instead change -- charge that the slow pace of legislative progress on the national level proves our strategy has not worked. This argument gets it backwards. Improving security is the precondition for making gains in other areas.

Will Americans follow this Evil Leftist recipe for guaranteed failure?  No.  We will not.  The Evil Left will twist any argument on Iraq to suit itself and its anti-American aims.  We will not cooperate with them in any way.

The American people know how difficult democracy can be. Our own country has an advanced and sophisticated political system in place. Yet even we can't pass a budget on time -- and we've had 200 years of practice.

This neat skewering of the inadequacies of the Democrat-controlled Congress makes the point painfully obvious on how difficult establishing democracy in a war-torn, brutalized Iraq really is.

Prime Minister Maliki and other Iraqi leaders are dealing with the issues far more controversial and complicated, and they are trying to do it all at once, after decades of a brutal dictatorship. Iraq's leaders aren't perfect. But they were elected by their people. They want what we want -- a free Iraq that fights terrorists instead of harboring them. And leaders in Washington need to look for ways to help our Iraqi allies succeed -- not excuses for abandoning them.

And that’s just what the arguments offered by Evil Leftists are—excuses.

The challenge is before us -- the challenge before us is hard, but America can meet it. And the conflict has come at a cost, on behalf of a cause that is right and essential to the American people. It's a noble cause. It is a just cause. It is a necessary cause. I wouldn't have asked the young men and women of our military to go in harm's way if I didn't think success in Iraq was necessary for the security of the United States of America. I know it can be difficult to see sometimes, but what happens on the streets of Baghdad and in the neighborhoods of Anbar has a direct impact on the safety of Americans here at home. And that is why we're in this fight. And that's why we'll stay in the fight, and that is why we're going to win this fight.

Enough said.

Transcript of Bush's speech