War & Peace Quote by Andrew Card

Card’s line is a neat little loop of political logic that tries to turn uncertainty into inevitability. “Victory” does all the work here: it’s asserted twice, undefined both times, and treated as a self-justifying good. The sentence isn’t arguing so much as building a verbal bridge from a controversial, concrete war (Iraq) to an expansive, emotionally charged project (“the War on Terror”). If Iraq feels messy, the phrase “most important aspect” attempts to upgrade it from one front among many into the keystone of national safety and moral purpose.

The intent is strategic: collapse the debate. By framing Iraq as the decisive pathway to winning a larger war, Card implies that questioning Iraq is tantamount to questioning victory itself. It’s persuasion by hierarchy. Iraq isn’t presented as a policy choice with costs and tradeoffs, but as a prerequisite to a much bigger promise. That’s also the subtext: keep the coalition together by making withdrawal or skepticism sound like surrender.

Context matters: Card was a senior Bush administration figure speaking in the mid-2000s, when public confidence in the invasion’s rationale was eroding and insurgency headlines were defining the war. The administration needed a narrative sturdy enough to outlast shifting evidence. “War on Terror” provides that durability, a rhetorical umbrella wide enough to shelter Iraq from scrutiny about WMD failures, sectarian violence, and nation-building drift.

What makes the line effective - and dangerous - is its circularity. It turns “victory” into both the destination and the proof that the route was correct, leaving critics to argue not just policy, but patriotism.