In order to gain some perspective, a retrospective is often helpful.

With regards to invading Iraq and doing away with Saddam Hussein, what were Americans thinking shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11? What did President Bush say? What were newspaper columnists writing?

Certainly emotions were running high at the time. But never was America’s resolve stronger.

In his joint session to Congress on September 20, 2001, President Bush made it very clear that al Qaeda was not the only organization we would seek out and destroy in our war against terrorism: “Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated” (wild applause from both sides of the aisle).

Four months later in his State of the Union, delivered on January 29 of this year, the president echoed these sentiments in his now famous “Axis of Evil” speech: “Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens, leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world” (wild applause from both sides of the aisle).

Steve Dunleavy, columnist for The New York Post, was perhaps most direct. In his September 12, 2001 op-ed. he wrote, “No, I don’t mean hunt them, arrest them, extradite them and prosecute them in a court of law. I mean far quicker and neater form of retribution for this cabal of cowards. A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens, poison them if you have to.”

His comments weren't directed solely at al Qaeda. He ended his column with this stirring ultimatum: “We should give the Taliban, which protects this monster, 24 hours to clear the city of Kabul of innocent civilians and then start the process of urban renewal with high altitude bombing. Then we should go to the interior, hunt down the desert rat and execute him and his followers on the spot. And if Saddam Hussein makes so much as a peep, do him too. The time has come.”

A year later, the war against terrorism continues much as President Bush warned last January. “Far from ending [in Afghanistan], our war against terror is only beginning. Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs, set to go off without warning.”

And the president remains undeterred in his insistence that “Saddam is a serious threat.” Emerging from a meeting with members of Congress earlier this week, he stated, “Doing nothing about that serious threat is not an option for the United States.”

Going back to his State of the Union, Bush said, “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic” (wild applause from both sides of the aisle).

As we recall the haunting specter of those men and women jumping ninety stories into granite canyons of death to escape the gaping fire and smoke-filled inferno in the north tower of the World Trade Center, now is not the time for Americans and members of Congress to waver.

The Bible warns that “double-minded men are unstable in all their ways.”

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