IN HIS INITIAL COMMENTS on Saddam Hussein’s capture, President Bush didn’t mention the main reason we went after the brutal dictator in the first place. Not that Bush needed to go into the principal justification for invading Iraq. But the matter is worth bringing up–especially since Howard Dean, whose candidacy has been fueled by his opposition to the president’s decision to go to war, is the odds-on favorite to capture the Democratic presidential nomination.

Bill Kristol and Bob Kagan have succinctly captured, the main reason for the war–“the strategic threat posed by Saddam Hussein because of his proven record of aggression and barbarity, his admitted possession of weapons of mass destruction, and the certain knowledge of his programs to build more.” Hussein was a threat to the Middle East but also to our allies and to us.