At any moment now, the United States will embark on a policy that will represent a turning point in history.

The looming invasion of Iraq has been compared to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand that launched World War I and the sinking of the Maine that thrust the United States onto the world stage.

After a half-century of deterrence and mutually assured destruction, President Bush has decided that the new threats of the 21st century demand a new strategy.

He is right in that regard. The enemy we face today is hidden. It has no borders, no uniforms and perhaps most significant, no qualms about murdering innocent civilians as events of Sept. 11, 2001 so clearly illustrated.

A pre-emptive strike on someone who may some day do harm to us is certainly controversial, as world opposition to the looming invasion of Iraq shows. Be that as it may, as commander-in-chief, President Bush’s duty is to protect American lives and interests. It’s a duty he obviously takes seriously and he has decided that removing Saddam Hussein as a potential threat and destroying possible weapons of mass destruction is the best way to fulfill it. The decision demands our respect and full support.

Plus, he’s dead-on right and Hussein has no one to blame for it but himself. Hussein had every opportunity to comply with repeated U.N. resolutions to disarm and chose not to. The only possible explanation for such defiance is that he’s concealing things he shouldn’t have.

Granted, the administration made some diplomatic blunders en route to the present situation, but if those mistakes had not been made, it’s a safe bet that we would have eventually ended up in the same situation – with the mightiest fighting force ever assembled amassed on Iraq’s borders poised to make the world a better place.

Victory is a foregone conclusion. The only unknown is the casualty rate and hopefully Iraqi soldiers will heed the president’s warnings and lay down their arms to make it as small as possible.