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OPINION: The War, Redefined by Bush
Friday, February 1, 2002
By Charles Krauthammer

This is not a President husbanding political capital. This is a President on a mission. We have not seen that in a very long time.

The conventional wisdom is wrong again. It held that President Bush would be guided by the unhappy experience of his father, who squandered his Gulf War popularity by refusing to energetically attack domestic problems. Son instead would use the political capital gained from the swift victory in Afghanistan to press a domestic agenda.

The State of the Union address would mark the pivot. We would get a laundry list of domestic programs in which every conceivable constituency gets a piece ofthe pie. But we got the opposite. Bush's laundry list was remarkable for its brevity.

Instead, he is using his popularity to seek support for more war. Which is why this speech, unlike most State of the Union addresses, will be remembered. It was important. It redefined the war.

Until now, the war had been about Sept. 11. That campaign is not yet over, but the real war is not about avenging Sept. 11. It is about preventing the next Sept. 11 - and in particular, a nuclear, chemical or biological Sept. 11.
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2002 © The New York Daily News.

Dan