To be more specific, what Democrats have been saying and Obama is now repeating is that President Bush has alienated America from the Muslim world by attacking Iraq without justification. They obviously believe Muslims have a right to be outraged at us and we need to make amends and show them we are decent people.

I don't care how many mind-numbed e-mail responses this generates, but we did have ample justification for invading Iraq, even apart from the WMD question, including Saddam's willful violation of 17 U.N. resolutions and postwar treaties.

But what is most troubling about Obama's plan to "reboot" our image in the Muslim world is its unspoken premise that terrorism is fueled by our mistreatment of Muslims and that if we'd just be kinder to the Muslim world, terrorism would melt away. If you're skeptical, just research Obama's statements about the root causes of terrorism, which to him include poverty -- the left's old economic determinism template. I wonder whether he plans to "spread the wealth" with them, as well. I'm sure a few extra mil would have deterred Osama.

But as I recall, America didn't start this war against Islamic terrorists, who had been waging war against us well before 9/11. We are not the ones whose places of worship and schools indoctrinate our children to hate nonbelievers. We're not the ones who treat our women like chattel, engage in honor killings of family members, target innocent civilians, or dance in the streets when innocents are murdered.

Obviously, it doesn't fit Obama's palette of predispositions to recognize that America was not wrong in liberating Iraq -- something the self-styled compassionate left should be ashamed to have opposed on humanitarian reasons alone; that we do not torture enemy detainees (Abu Ghraib was not the rule, but an aberration); and that we do the opposite of mistreating prisoners at Gitmo.

It also may not occur to Obama that in any negotiations -- his messiahship notwithstanding -- it takes two to make a deal. But he may learn soon enough the hard way if Britain persists in balking on his request that they send more troops to Afghanistan and Iran keeps dissing him.

If Obama truly intends to advocate (SET ITAL) for (END ITAL) America instead of reflexively blaming us first, he's in store for a quick comeuppance.