Strong Horse

As I've surely mentioned before, I deride the idea that going after our enemies abroad--starting with Afghanistan under the Taliban in 2001 and continuing through Iraq today (and hopefully Iran tomorrow)--was falling into the brilliant trap of Osama bin Laden. Sure, Osama might have thought we'd ineffectively flail about after 9-11 and enrage Moslems who saw power without will to use it, but instead Osama was routed from his mountain sanctuary and is now in hiding. His plotting and killing are done at lower levels now. And Saddam's regime is destroyed.

And what of the rage that was to follow our attack on the Taliban? Or, the Left assures us, from the "misbegotten" war in Iraq?

Let's see.

Taliban defeated.

Saddam on trial.

Saudis and Pakistanis serious about killing Islamists in their midst who they now see as threats to the regimes. Sure, these governments haven't addressed root causes but at least they feel threatened enough to try and kill the enemy finally.

Libya gives up nukes.

Lebanon ejects Syrian occupation force.

Moslem opinion of America and democracy increasing; and opinion of terrorism decreasing.

North American Moslems issue fatwah against terrorism.

And of course, where we've sent our soldiers we've created allies to fight Islamists and not more Islamist jihadis:

Iraqi guardsmen are fighting al Qaedists as Afghans die in firefights with Taliban remnants. Note well that at the loci of American democratizing presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are few local Iraqis and Afghans — as there are few Turkish or Indian Muslims — who are eager for global jihad against the West. The killers instead flock from elsewhere to those new nations to stop the experiment before it spreads. Give dictatorial Pakistan or Egypt billions, and we get ever more terrorists; give the Iraqis and Afghans their freedom and their citizens are unlikely to show up in London and Madrid blowing up civilians, but rather busy at home killing jihadists.

Not a bad run.