This is not chess, however. Capturing the king does not end the game. Looking at Saddam crawling out of his hole in that disheveled state, it's hard to imagine that he alone has inspired the terrorism that has killed more American soldiers since President Bush declared an end to hostilities than during the war itself. As Peter Brookes, my colleague at the Heritage Foundation, pointed out in his weekly column for the New York Post, we can't yet know what effect Saddam's capture will have on the insurgents.
Even if the Fedayeen, the Baath Party thugs and the foreign jihadists who have poured into Iraq through its largely unguarded borders all take this news as their cue to lay down their arms, the war on terrorism will remain far from over. From the Philippines, where American soldiers are helping to ward off an insurgency led by Islamists, to Indonesia, a poorly policed nation of 3,000 islands that contains the world's largest Muslim population, to Pakistan, where President Musharaff recently survived an assassination attempt, to the troubled Middle East, to Africa and beyond, the war goes on.
Extremists who hate the freedom we hold dear, who resent the creature comforts we enjoy, who are rendered susceptible by poverty and despair to the hateful messages of their cynical leaders, plan our demise even as we speak. Where is Osama bin Laden? And what is he planning next?
As we look back on this, once again, we have to hand it to our military. People can debate whether our civilian leadership prepared adequately for the challenges of postwar Iraq. Should we have disbanded the Iraqi army? Should we have curtailed the looting sooner? What should our relationship be with the various clerics who claim control of some areas of the country?
But no one can say our troops haven't handled every task assigned them with professionalism, excellence, class and success. They disposed of the world's fourth-largest army in six weeks' time with minimal casualties. They secured the Baghdad airport sufficiently for President Bush to fly in and have Thanksgiving dinner with the troops.
Their precision munitions have made this perhaps the "cleanest" war in history. And their leadership has been nothing less than inspiring.
As Iraqi families go to bed tonight one step closer to living in a free and civilized nation, let us renew our pledge to support and pray for those who have made this possible – and who still have much to do.