Michael Novak on the approaching days:

Expect a lot of fighting in Iraq during the next six weeks. The climactic days of the terrorist guerrilla war are at hand. When the guerrillas are broken here, and exposed to the world as the losers they are, then the Baathists in Syria and the tyrants in Tehran know they are next in getting the full attention of the United States, and feeling the full pressures of the desire for liberty among their own people. Nearly half their population is under 25 years old, and those young people are hungry for the opportunities they know the rest of the world shares, which they currently do not.

Our own Democratic party, once the party of democracy and human rights, has lost its understanding of the power of the cause of liberty overseas, among the world's most repressed and mistreated peoples. Fewer than half today's Democratic party, according to polls, grasps what is at stake in the war in Iraq. But a lot of U.S. Democrats do. They are cheering for our troops on the offensive in Iraq, and they are going to vote in droves for George W. Bush, much to the amazement of those who have not yet grasped the transformation of the world that occurred after September, 2001.

Now awash in the moral apostasy of abandonment, isolationism and appeasement, John Kerry has bet a White House bid against the traditional interests and values of Americans. And, as Ali makes clear, those of Iraqis, too.

DON'T SAY YOU'RE DOING IT FOR THE GREATER GOOD, SENATOR: Jim Robbins adds a powerfully vindicative poll to facts inconvenient to John Kerry, like Saddam Hussein's long-standing ties to al Qaeda and his unreformed thirst for catastrophic weapons:

The IRI poll revealed that three quarters of Iraqis are hopeful for the future, that 80 percent believe things will slowly get better, two-thirds think life will be better a year from now and seventy percent would not leave Iraq if given a chance. Eighty-seven percent plan to vote in the upcoming election (much greater than US voter participation), and only about 1.5 percent are concerned that the security situation makes things too unstable to vote. Fifty-eight percent believe democracy is either very or somewhat likely to succeed.

What does John Kerry offer (today, at around 10:30 AM, Eastern)? An America-First platform no less stingy than "Iraqis took your skate park!"