We're brought squarely before two terrifying realities in the wake of today's terrorist bombings against Iraqi civilians. First, when Iraqis eagerly abandoned Saddam Hussein and tyranny for a country they could peacefully govern and cultivate, they crossed a line drawn by terrorists - and are now just as hated and desired dead or subjugated as Americans and Jews. Second, no one - including Democratic presidential candidates who believe the threat to civilization posed by terrorists is "exaggerated" - can easily deny that the only way to end the plotting and execution of massacres against innocents is to utterly defeat those who would do it. These terrorists receive aid, direction, manpower and money from sources outside of Iraq. As I have said for months, Iraq's liberation can not stand alone forever. The Near East's culture of hatred and violence will forever try to swallow up any fledgling democracy unless totalitarian regimes in adjacent countries are themselves destroyed.

Until then, Iraqis will be using every ounce of courage and faith to stay determined and unashamed. Some press agencies are talking up the possibility of sectarian violence. I doubt the situation to be as volatile as some might make it out to be; angry mobs are angry mobs, and Iraqis know the score. Leaders in their own right, Alaa's and Ali's anger is, and wisely always will be, directed at thugs and murders. They and their countrymen must be given the promise of our military strength to succeed.

PICTURE, THOUSAND WORDS: During breakfast I caught a clip from a press conference held by members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Some men, some women, in suits and dresses respectively, speaking against violence - speaking for the free rule of their country. One year ago, we heard only from a bloodthirsty dictator whose face was plastered across the country, and his selection of equally vile cronies. Consider those two Iraqs while reports on the bombings continue throughout the day.

Two weeks ago, Iraqi Zeyad reported that Baghdad's Ministry of Justice announced an anulment of Governing Council Resolution 137, the Islamist back door for oppressive Sharia law. Officially, that repeal has taken place in the Governing Council, causing five reactionary Council members to walk out in protest. (Twenty are left, so a quorum likely remains.) The ramifications of such a vote - namely the modern rights of women - are absent from headlines. Truth be told, the beleaguered New York Times is among the few newspapers to print an article correctly identifying this vote as a victory for modernity:

Under many interpretations of Islamic law, a woman's right to divorce and inheritance are strictly limited. Some interpretations of Islamic law also allow polygamy, as well as permit men to marry girls. Many Iraqi women expressed concern at the legislation, and Mr. Bremer did not sign it, preventing it from taking effect. Some of the women on the Governing Council, however, vowed to repeal the legislation, in part to send a message to a future sovereign Iraqi government. On Friday, the council, led by Dr. Raja Habib Khuzai, a female Shiite member of the council, voted to repeal the law.

The title? Even better: "Iraqi Women 1, Islamists 0." On this story, the New York Times 1, free press 0.

He won't be hurting anyone ever again:

The top bomb-maker for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in Fallujah, Fox News learned Monday. The bomb-making lieutenant, whose name wasn’t released, died in a gun battle at a terrorist safe house late last week, military sources told Fox. The military officer's death is significant because Al-Zarqawi is the man believed to have masterminded a number of recent attacks against the coalition in Iraq.

Allied forces have also uncovered subterfuge and leads to a mole. Slowly but surely, the insurgency is being outsmarted, cornered and demolished. These are among many accomplishments to be proud of, ones we should expect the president to make known tonight.

Some fantastic news over at Zeyad's: Sunni and Shiite clerics alike have issued a fatwa against internecine violence, while the ominously theocratic Resolution 137, which would have placed Iraqi women's rights in serious risk, has been soundly repealed.

Did I say that the Iraqis have courage and heart? According to the Belmont Club (via IP), they make my flat compliment shrivel:

No American troops were involved in the fighting [of the February 14 Fallujah raid]. Officers from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed a 10-minute drive away could hear the battle clearly. They offered help but [Lt. Col. Suliman Hammad, a battalion commander for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.] said it wasn't needed. The Americans did provide additional ammunition and weapons, including light machine guns.

After the battle, soldiers at the civil defense base proudly displayed a light machine gun and a pair of rocket propelled grenade launchers they had captured from the attackers.

Forgive me for my worry, gentlemen: you and your countrymen will be a standard of bravery and fortitude to which millions struggling under tyranny today will aspire tomorrow. So your story ends in happy victory, Americans cannot and will not abandon you.

The Boston Globe examines Japan's operations, successes and obstacles in Iraq, as well as its rising confidence and embrace of greater military responsibilities under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. While the Sunni hotbed of Fallujah brought us troubling news, the neglected Shiite city of Samawah seeks both progress and cooperation from their Japanese constabulary:

''The infrastructure of the town is very bad,'' said Khudr, a goldsmith and the coach of Samawah's basketball team. ''There is sewage everywhere. There are no gardens. There is no place for the children to play.''

He hopes the Japanese will change that, and not be spooked into a retreat by the continuing instability throughout Iraq.

''We created the friendship society because we had heard the Japanese were afraid for the safety of their troops,'' he said. ''We want them to know that they have friends here.''

In spite of our worry - yes, mine too - the overwhelming majority of Iraqis are undaunted by their former and would-be oppressors. They want our help - and the help of country after country that have, over the last several months, begun following President Bush's visionary lead.

Crime and strategically ineffective terror attacks are one thing. But today's prison break - tens of criminals free and police dead - is another entirely, and an indictment of the "kindler, gentler" approach many contingents of our military force have adopted. Consider this February 4th report:

A coalition of insurgent groups has vowed to take over cities vacated by U.S. troops, and warned of "harsh consequences" for Iraqis who resist, according to pamphlets circulating in this hotbed of anti-American resistance.

The pamphlets, signed by Muhammad's Army and other insurgent groups, began appearing Saturday in Ramadi and nearby Fallujah - both part of the dangerous Sunni Triangle region.

...Despite the threats, U.S. officials have expressed confidence Iraqi police will be able to handle the security situation.

...The U.S. Army has said it will gradually reduce its presence in Iraqi cities and hand over control to Iraqi security forces. The Army has so far given a detailed withdrawal plan only for the capital, Baghdad, which it envisages to be virtually free of U.S. troops by May.

I initially responded to the announcement of an accelerated power transfer with mixed feelings; drawing on the records of the Marshall Plan and Occupied Japan, less than eighteen months was not what I'd expected, particularly with Iraq still beset by organized and - as we've just witnessed - capable terrorist elements. I disagree with intimations that security concerns are the Iraqis' responsibility. A free Iraq, an open society, would be by definition a magnet to its surrounding region of strongmen, big and small. The American officials quoted in the above article were wrong. Iraqis are not for want of courage and heart, but after the Fallujah attack it's fairly obvious they would be no match for the onslaught of the dictatorial Near East. Iraq's challenge is a reflection of the wider war: the defense and expansion of human freedom and dignity will not always be picturesque, nor always politically advantageous, nor quickly concluded. Fallujah is one of the few epicenters of insurgency; it by no means represents Iraq. But through that distinction it represents an Iraq populated by terrorists and without Western military power. It is a city where public relations concerns left Iraqis in charge of security. Expediting America's responsibility for the sake of expediting points to abrupt, catastrophic failure.

A lingering fear of mine is that the American generation currently in politics is one raised to value short-term commitment, inoffensiveness and cultural relativism; and that the current war on terror, unprecedented as it is, will ultimately devolve into torpor because it is being prosecuted by weak-willed men, Democrat or Republican. I pray those fears are misplaced.

LET ME REFINE THIS: Or at least explain the emotional undercurrent. I woke up with what felt like a complete understanding of American foreign policy under John Kerry. We talk about it, we read about it, we debate it over and over; but in the waking state I could actually see it. Few details; but an impression. Withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, rumors or reports of the myriad small unit actions in all corners of the earth wrapping up. Prostration before the United Nations; France, Germany, Russia and China. I could go on but if you think along my lines, the frightening narrative is a familiar one. I woke up to this and then read about Fallujah minutes later - cue stock footage of train wreck. That, I hope, puts the force of my entry into perspective.

QUICK TO FEAR, I WAS: Though we can't leave Iraq yet, they're far from helpless.

The coalition of free nations working to rebuild and revitalize Iraq grows:

Korea's parliament on Friday approved a plan to send 3,000 troops to Iraq in addition to the 465 military medics and engineers already there.

The troop dispatch, approved in a 155-50 vote, will make South Korea the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the United States and Britain.

South Korea hopes to send the new forces to the northern Iraqi town of Kirkuk before the end of April. The new deployment, likely to include special forces commandos and combat-ready marines, will be solely responsible for security and reconstruction around oil-rich Kirkuk.

All of this without direction or permission from the United Nations. When an alliance of democracies is willing to help liberalize troubled parts of the world, bound simply by a common desire for international security and the betterment of humanity, who needs global bureaucracies?

The Coalition Provisional Authority has translated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's letter to al Qaeda operatives; it's as bone-chilling as you'd expect. Read it for yourself to be reminded how, casualties and frustrations notwithstanding, the forces causing mayhem and violence in Iraq are so dangerous that they cannot be allowed to succeed. Oddly enough, al-Zarqawi has soberly assessed one aspect of his strategic efforts:

[Iraqi Shiites] have supported the Americans, helped them, and stand with them against the Mujahidin. They work and continue to work towards the destruction of the Mujahidin.

And they will continue to if Americans follow the president and "stay the course." Most Shiites and numerous Western parties - including the Wall Street Journal - strongly believe CPA to be wrong in eschewing direct elections. But it is a civil debate for a noble cause. It's the kind of problem we're lucky to have.

Ladies and gentlemen, the face of evil:

At least 44 people were killed Wednesday when a homicide car bomber attacked an army recruiting center in central Baghdad where hundreds of would-be soldiers were lined up to volunteer for the military, Fox News has learned. Iraq's deputy interior minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, said 47 people were killed and 50 injured. He told reporters "this crime" will "not deter the people's march toward freedom."

Trying to intimidate people from living freely and protecting that right? It won't work against Iraqis, tired of cowering into submission. What the terrorists will achieve are sworn enemies who will help assure their destruction.