Apparently, those at NRO have an explanation for everything, which in this case conveniently downplays the increasing casualty count in Iraq ^[1]. Victor David Hanson of NRO writes ^[2]:

We are winning this war. But we should never forget, because of our amazing success so far, that we are still in a war — a big one against Islamic fascism and the abettors of terror in the Middle East that started on September 11 but will follow certain historic rules that did not suddenly first appear in 2001, nor can be easily ignored by present experts. Our task — ordeal if you will — is that we must make war so godawfully terrible to our enemies, and the rewards of peace and reform so humanely sweet to our friends, that the vast middle in between will have no problem choosing sides.

Before making this statement, Hanson opines that those we are killing don’t understand the beauty of the West:

There really is no alternative to the allure of the West — even for a theocrat or suicide-murderer. Communism alone offered to the ignorant the only tempting romantic counter-proposition to Western capitalism and liberality: that Western bounty must be stolen at the point of a gun shared by all its citizens.

So, by Hanson’s logic: teach ‘em to love our values by killing and frightening them into submission….