One victory secured does not define a nation's policy

Clearly President Bush wanted to declare victory Thursday on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, but he was necessarily restrained.
For one thing, to declare that the war in Iraq was over would have triggered provisions of the Geneva Convention requiring release of prisoners of war. Of course, it is worth noting that Iraq, as in many things, had ignored that provision at the end of the Persian Gulf War, holding Kuwaiti prisoners for more than a decade and possibly holding a missing American even longer. But the United States is hardly in a position to justify what it does or does not do based on precedents set by Saddam Hussein.
The president also was not free to say the war is over because there are still shots being fired.
But he was obviously correct in saying that the major combat operations in Iraq have come to an end. And with that coming just 43 days after he announced the opening of the offensive against Saddam Hussein, the president was clearly entitled to claim victory over the evil Iraqi dictator.
The missing exclamation point
It would have been an excellent occasion for the president to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to first seek peaceful, diplomatic solutions to the world's troubles. It would have been reassuring if the president, after praising Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks for their victories, had mentioned the role Secretary of State Colin Powell might be expected to play in seeking a more peaceful future.
While clearly the toppling of the regime of Saddam Hussein is a good thing for the world and the Iraqi people, the wisdom of the pre-emptive action taken by the United States will not be clear until sometime in the future -- if and when Iraq is restored to stability.
Stating that "any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes," sounds good. But no nation, not even the world's lone superpower, can hope to enforce that statement as policy.