It’s hard to recall a more dramatic speech by an American president than that delivered yesterday by the commander in chief to the enlisted men and women and officers of the United States Ship Abraham Lincoln, as it steamed home from its victory in Iraq. From the president’s arrival by jet to his embrace by the sailors, it was a memorably moving encounter. But the most extraordinary element was the substance of the president’s message.

This was not a declaration of the end of the war, as some had predicted, but a reminder that the war against the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists targeting America is far from over. Major military operations in Iraq may have been successfully concluded, but the president made a point of reminding Americans that now is no time for complacency. “The enemies of freedom are not idle, and neither are we,” President Bush said. “Our government has taken unprecedented measures to defend the homeland, and we will continue to hunt down the ene my before he can strike.”

One of the important points that will be noted by historians in decades to come was the clarity with which the president marked the change in the nature of war that has been wrought by advanced weaponry so that today, in the president’s words, “We have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians. No device of man can remove the tragedy from war, yet it is a great advance when the guilty have far more to fear from war than the innocent.”

The decision to avoid a declaration of victory was not only militarily, but politically, prudent. The president no doubt remembers the extraordinary ovation that greeted his father when he addressed a joint session of Congress following the American expulsion of the Iraqis from Kuwait. And he no doubt remembers how his father’s towering standing in the popularity polls crumbled in the succeeding months. By marking the point that there is much yet to be done in the war on terror, Mr. Bush has established expectations on a more realistic footing — a realism that will serve him well in the coming political campaign.

That outlook notwithstanding, his expressions of gratitude for the achievements of our armed services so far clearly connected with the ordinary seamen cheering the president on the deck of the Lincoln, and no doubt they connected with all Americans who feel great pride in what has been achieved and great determination to see the job through to its end.