Since 9/11 the Bush administration has committed itself to hold the terrorists and those that harbour and support them responsible. Furthermore it has identified for particular attention the axis of evil which includes N. Korea, Iran and Iraq.

Yet the Democrats are unwilling to accept that the invasion of Iraq is part of the war on terror and insist that that US should focus on Bin Laden and that Bush lied about the threat of WMD. They demand an exit strategy and argue that any time the US invades a country it should have an exit strategy. They act like such a linkage is axiomatic. But is it?

The US invaded Europe over 60 years ago and it is still there. It participated in the Korean war some fifty years ago and it is still there. Great Britain invaded India hundreds of years ago and didn't leave until 1948. Obviously an exit strategy wasn't part of the war plan and was superfluous. The invading country stays until it has no reason to.

In the case of Iraq, the Democrats believe that the US has no reason to remain but concede that it should wait until Iraq can defend itself before departing.

This assumes that the US has no interest to protect there and shouldn't have gone in in the first place. They couldn't be more wrong.

Once again they ignore the big picture and pretend that Iraq was irrelevant to it. This requires the belief that the Bush administration thought it was worth 200 billion to get rid of Hussein just because he was a bad guy. I don't believe this for a moment.

To my mind the invasion of Iraq was a necessary step in the war on terror. Don't forget that Iraq borders on six Moslem countries which include Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Not only has the invasion of Iraq got rid on a brutal dictator and also a danger to the region but it gave the US a foothold to deal with Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia and deal they will because that's what the war on terror requires. Iraq was also a good place to start because it was so oppressed by Hussein and because it was so secular. It represented a good prospect for democratic change and the recent election proved this to be right.

Already we read about how these countries have to be worried because of the message that the successful Iraqi elections hold for them. Yet the Democrats ignore this potential and call for an exit strategy.

Remember that Iran and Syria have supported the insurgency in Iraq which has greatly increased the American casualties. If this isn't enough reason to hold them accountable, remember all the Iranian supported attacks on the US starting with the seizure of the American Embassy in 1979. And to make matters worse they will have the atomic bomb in about a year. Think what that will do to increase Iranian influence over the entire Middle East at the expense of American influence. How comfortable would America be in having 100,000 soldiers within striking distance of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

The only thing that would justify the 200 billion expenditure and counting was to complete the job of transforming the Middle East. This is the big picture.

As part of this goal, the US has introduced the Roadmap as the means to further its aims. Remember the Roadmap was presented about a week after Iraq was invaded. The Roadmap requires the Palestinians to abandon terror and incitement as the price of attaining statehood and requires all Muslim countries in the area to enter real peace with Israel. This too is part of the big picture. Israel is being forced to reduce its expectations to make a peace deal easier to achieve. For that matter so are the Palestinians.

To succeed both in Iraq and in Israel, the US must neuter Syria and Iran. This includes Hezbollah. As long as these countries are allowed to thwart the American plans for Iraq and Israel, any progress will be in peril. The US knows this and will deal with these countries accordingly. Then comes Saudi Arabia.

So forget about an exit strategy and focus on a success strategy.