They don't get it.
The removal of Saddam is the "global war against terrorism."
The White House will never say it, but removing Saddam is the means to destablize the entire Middle East and thus to destabilize the Islamist support networks in Saudi, Iran, and Pakistan, and by extension in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt.
Only complete idiots (such as those in Washington yesterday) would fail to see the larger strategy being employed against Islamist terrorism, and the leverage provided by Saddam's destruction.
Someone is Washington is employing very sophisticated systems-thinking and wargaming in the battle against Islamism. Strangely, only Middle Eastern commentators seem to "get it," while our Western "news analysts" are completely befuddled in their simplistic assessments.
Yup. This journalist is quite clueless. It's almost as if Bush if fighting 15 different wars: there's the war against Iraq, the war against Persia, the war against Farsi-speaking people, the war against Baathists,the war against Arabs, the war against Moslems, the war against terrorism ...
Sensible people know it's all one war: against Terrorism. Leftwing journalists want to describe it in such a way that it sounds like we're picking fights with the whole world just because Republicans are evil.