There are two candidates for president of the United States, and one of them will be inaugurated in January, 2009. The primaries for this election lasted longer than any I can remember, and now the election season will also be the longest I can remember. Both candidates have been clearly chosen even though the party conventions are still two months away. In November, voters will select either John McCain or Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. I will vote for John McCain.

One reason I support McCain is his position on the war in Iraq. John McCain is committed to victory in the war on terrorism, and one part of that victory is the emergence of Iraq as a republic where free people engage in free enterprise and elect their own political leaders. Military victory against the enemy government was only the first step toward the real victory. After five years of struggle, the free nation of Iraq is still maturing. Iraq does not want to be anybody’s pawn, but if left alone, it would be overwhelmed by terrorist partisans who will use its religion, its treasure and its freedom to destroy everything the citizens have worked and prayed for. McCain has pledged his continuing support until the real victory is won and the people of Iraq enjoy the freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness just as we do.

I am proud that he takes this stand. The war against terrorism is more difficult than most wars, because there are no boundaries to define combat zones or even combatants. This war is being fought intensely in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it is also being fought around the world at all times. Every time we get on an airplane we are reminded of it. Before the war on terror, I could jump out of my car twenty minutes before takeoff, hustle through the check-in and run down the concourse, through the gate and onto the plane at the last minute before the door closed. If the gate agent knew me, she might not even look at my boarding pass. Those days are over, because everybody who gets on an airplane needs to prove that he or she is not a terrorist. That is just one of the many ways the war on terror touches us even though we are far from any “combat zone.”

John McCain has said that he is committed to fight this war with victory as his goal. He has said what President Bush has also said; namely, that this kind of war could last many, many years. Fighting terrorism is a lot like fighting termites and cockroaches. No matter how many you exterminate, there always seem to be more. The threat is never over. If McCain means what he says, he will stand firm against terrorism and stand firm for the protection of our nation, even if it means that the war is still not over by the time he leaves office.

Obama, on the other hand, is already preparing to cut and run. It seems not to bother him that withdrawing American troops would leave the fledgling democracy of Iraq out in the cold. Obama is so ignorant that he actually believes he can talk with terrorists and persuade them to be nice. Nobody that ignorant should ever be president of the USA.

The day I watched the World Trade Center collapse into a pile of rubble, I was terrified. I had never seen such a thing. My parents had never seen such a thing. The idea that anybody in the world felt entitled to push his political objectives by means of the wanton murder of thousands of innocent people who could not be considered anyone’s enemies was alien to anything I could even imagine. Everybody I encountered that day was as terrified and horrified as I was. On that day, we all knew that somebody wanted us gone, and we felt determined not to let it happen. President Bush stood strong in that time of crisis and promised that we would do what it took to find and destroy the enemy who had done this. He never promised anybody that it would be easy, and he never promised anybody it would be quick. In those days, even Democrats wanted to find and destroy the enemy.

President Bush has never lost his commitment to the war on terror. John McCain is firm in his commitment as well. Terrorists hate George Bush, and if John McCain is elected, they will hate him as well. The terrorists love Obama, and they love the Democrat agenda of withdrawal from Iraq. If we had no other way to know which candidate to pick, that message alone should do it. It does not make sense to elect as president the candidate most beloved by our sworn enemies.

Check what John McCain is saying about the war. Check what Obama is saying. Then double-check which candidate Osama bin Laden wants. Which candidate would Hamas pick? That research should bring you to the conclusion that John McCain is the better choice for president. We have only two choices. The perfect candidate isn’t running, whoever that may be. I will be voting for John McCain.