The Iraqi government is committing forty thousand troops and police to Operation Lightning. The purpose is to root out terrorists in the Baghdad area who are responsible for a wave of car bombings that began after the Iraqi government was announced on April 28th.
Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says Iraqis "have the absolute belief that there is no place for the terrorists, or those who provoke terrorism." Iraqis, he says, "will stand solidly against anyone who tried to shed a drop of Iraqi blood, against anyone who tries to kill any Iraqi."
President George W. Bush says in recent days, coalition and Iraqi forces "have killed or captured hundreds of insurgents in Baghdad and Western Iraq and near the Syrian border":
"Difficult and dangerous work remains. Suicide bombers in Iraq are targeting innocent men, women and children, hoping to intimidate Iraq's new leaders, and shake the will of the Iraqi people. They will fail. Iraqis are determined and our strategy is clear: We will train Iraqi forces so they can take the fight to the enemy and defend their own country."
Throughout the world, says Mr. Bush, "liberty is on the march":
"In the last eighteen months, we have witnessed a Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, a Purple Revolution in Iraq, a Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, and a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. These are just the beginning. Across the Central Asia and the broader Middle East, we are seeing the rise of a new generation whose hearts burn for liberty, and they are going to have it."
President Bush says the United States "is standing with these democratic reformers because we know that the only force powerful enough to stop the rise of tyranny and terror, and replace hatred with hope, is the force of human freedom."
The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States government.
