The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal has repeatedly proven itself to be the White House's most consistent and fair critic on the right; when the Journal takes issue with President Bush, we're best to read. Yesterday's news told the public that, reportedly from the direct decision of the president, a full-scale offensive in Fallujah to destroy the isolated, Syrian-Saudi-terrorist-Ba'athist mixer was delayed in favor of strict patrols. The Journal wasn't impressed, and though their fear of terrorists having the foresight and discretion to simply wait out the American-Iraqi sweeps — again, the enemies of freedom have been foolish enough to engage Marines in conventional combat — the newspaper's warning ought to be heeded:

We hope this doesn't represent a decision by coalition political leaders to shrink from the military campaign that is inevitable. Sooner or later the Baath remnants, jihadists and criminals who have used Fallujah as a sanctuary have to be killed. They can't be bargained with, they can't be reasoned with, because for them a peaceful transition to Iraqi control after June 30 means defeat. If the estimated 2,000 or so insurgents decide to allow Marine patrols, it will be because they have concluded it is safer to melt away to kill Americans another day rather than fight to the death in Fallujah now.

The killers facing Marines in Fallujah are those who melted away a year ago as coalition forces closed on Baghdad. Rather than fight and die then, they retreated to the Sunni heartland to regroup, rearm and organize the murder of both coalition soldiers and the Iraqis who are cooperating with us. The U.S. didn't pursue those Saddamists at the time, and it decided in later months to let Fallujah more or less alone. We now know this was a mistake, and the Marine presence is a recognition that the city can no longer be tolerated as a terror sanctuary.

...The danger with delay in Fallujah and [United Nations agent for Iraqi political transition] Brahimi's comments is that they will be interpreted by Iraqis as a sign that the U.S. is losing its resolve and simply wants out. Perhaps caution in Fallujah makes sense at this moment, but sooner or later the insurgents have to be defeated, and at the point of a gun, not by diplomacy. If we're not prepared to do that, Mr. Bush might as well order the troops home now.

Following yesterday's link to Belmont Club, Wretchard was far more optimistic about the reality of Fallujan patrols, discovering a parallel of Americans' recruiting Iraqis for men of "good character" to John "Blackjack" Pershing's combined effort with Filipinos against Islamic insurgents:

It atmospherically recalls Pershing, greeting newly arrived officers and sizing them up for toughness, before putting them on a steam launch to Jolo with a month's pay, a detachment of Scouts and the promise that the launch would be back to collect whoever survived. The Marines snipers may now have open season on any armed men in the Fallujah streets, where Americans and Iraqis of 'good character' will find it tested as never before. The Iraqi nation will be born or fail in Fallujah, but if they succeed, the words "Anywhere, Anytime" will be translated into Arabic.

Indeed: make-or-break. We know that the fighting two weeks ago was a tactical defeat for enemy forces. As Rich Galen's latest report from Iraq shows — and Alaa's Iraqi perspective corroborates — the continuing engagements are not against the people who will cultivate a democratic Iraq. I said months ago and still maintain that Iraqis are uncertain only about whether their window to escape a history of tyranny will remain open long enough. The combatants concentrated in Najaf and Fallujah are the collective enemy our forces have been fighting since September 11th, the myriad groups who, despite exterior loyalties, serve the common purpose of subjugating and tormenting their fellow men; who were born from and feed on the vast cultural cauldron of hatred and violence we know as today's Near East. Yet as Amir Taheri wrote in yesterday's New York Post, the vast majority of these Muslim populations want neither strongmen nor theocrats dictating their lives; they will fight for and to keep their own peaceful freedom, if only America stands firm and presses forward to complete the establishment of Iraq, the model.