Considering how totally unprepared we were for this, I must grudgingly give credit to Bush and Cheney for setting up the war on terror. A lot of preliminary OJT and trial-and-error work was needed to get it rolling, and it was notquick, or easy, starting from scratch. Honest mistakes were inevitable at the start, but the results are starting to pay off now.

But I am also very proud of Obama for building on their achievements and taking the war to our enemies. It’s not just the Bin Laden takedown, but the drone campaign (you keep on hearing snippets that what we hear about is only the tip of the iceberg) and other actions, too, not all of them military. The Jihadists are being hurt politically, diplomatically, financially, and in the field of intelligence. They are dangerous only in the way a cornered beast is dangerous, because they are running out of options.

Al-Quaeda in particular and Jihadists in general must be very depressed about how things are working out, and from living under a constant cloud of fear and uncertainty. Taking these kind of losses without being able to strike back effectively is devastating to any fighter’s morale. They are learning Che Guevara’s hard lesson: “A revolutionary wins, or dies.” There is no middle ground.