"Once they have finished in Fallujah, they will head toward you. You must not let them succeed in their plan," said terrorist leader Zarqawi in a taped address that must have sounded more desperate than encouraging to his followers.
The Fallujah campaign has been a success on a number of levels. 2500 enemy combatants have been put out of action or killed, their intent for all of Iraq should they succeed has been laid bare with the opening of torture and killing rooms, a vast quantity of their weapons have been destroyed, and weapons supply lines from Syria to Baghdad have been interdicted. Ordinary Iraqis can take heart the the Iraqi and American governments mean business and mean to clean out pockets of terrorist defiance.
Fallujah was the "insurgency's" most important base, where most of their activities in Baghdad and elsewhere were headquartered. The remaining pockets, including Mosul, will not be nearly as difficult to deal with.
In the same taped address, Zarqawi said, "This war is very long, and always think of this as the beginning, and always make the enemy think that yesterday was better than today."
Unfortunately, too many people in the West are willing to buy into that propaganda gambit. The meme is often repeated that war against terrorism will only produce more terrorists, even in the face of evidence that this is false.
Members of the mainstream media point to activity in the Sunni triangle as evidence that things are only getting worse. Meanwhile, there have been no successful attacks against the US homeland for over three years, activity in Europe is at a very low level, activity in Israel has steadily declined, and even most of Iraq is at peace. Khaddafi in Libya has thrown in the towel, none of the Arab states in the Middle East have the moxie to permit terrorists a base of operations behind their borders, and some countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have active anti-terrorism programs. Efforts by Al Qaeda to establish bases in Northern Africa have been snuffed out by multilateral anti-terrorism programs that include French and American elements. Islamofascists the world over have been put on the defensive and have become increasingly ineffective. Even the liberal Dutch have had enough of radical Muslims.
The War on Terror is proving to be successful, but members of the mainstream media and the liberal elite in America and Europe are never going to admit that, nor will they ever stop cheerleading for our terrorist enemies.