This would have to be my very favorite of all the essays I've yet read by Michael Ledeen. (Emphasis added.)
Our victory in Fallujah has had enormous consequences, first of all because the information we gathered there has made it possible to capture or kill considerable numbers of terrorists and their leaders. It also sent a chill through the spinal column of the terror network, because it exposed the lie at the heart of their global recruitment campaign. As captured terrorists have told the region on Iraqi television and radio, they signed up for jihad because they had been told that the anti-American crusade in Iraq was a great success, and they wanted to participate in the slaughter of the Jews, crusaders, and infidels. But when they got to Iraq -- and discovered that the terrorist leaders immediately confiscated their travel documents so that they could not escape their terrible destiny -- they saw that the opposite was true. The slaughter -- of which Fallujah was the inescapable proof -- was that of the jihadists at the hands of the joint coalition and Iraqi forces.This is an important essay. Read it.