ARE YOU BEING "PLAYED" BY THE TERRORISTS?

Is it Vietnam yet?

That pretty much sums up the questioning President Bush got yesterday during his Rose Garden press conference on Iraq and related matters.

The president said no.

"Basically what [the terrorists are] trying to do is cause people to run," said Bush.

"They want to kill and create chaos. That's the nature of a terrorist. That's what terrorists do . . . [T]hey're not going to intimidate America."

Though, quite clearly, not for lack of trying.

Those who are mounting attacks on U.S. and Iraqi civilian targets in Baghdad - whether Ba'athist insurgents, Syrian mercenaries or al Qaeda terrorists - are playing to the American home front.

They, too, have satellite TV and they can monitor the response in America to each outrage for any hint that the U.S.-led coalition is losing its resolve.

So when they attack a target like the Red Cross or a local police station, they are not just attacking foreign aid workers or Iraqi "collaborators" - but American public opinion.

And not wholly without result.