Every conflict reaches a tipping point. More often than not, historians would vouch, that tipping point need not be anywhere near the end of an ongoing war. It could be said, before Okinawa, prior to the bodies at Iwo Jima, before the firebombing of Tokyo, prior to MacArthur's return to the Philippines, and years before Truman's early August atomic decision, Japanese defeat was sowed at Midway. Ditto that in the European theater in the aftermath of D-Day, some eleven months before the fall of the Third Reich: turning points, they were, leaving only the question of how much time, treasure, and blood was to from there on be lost.

And now events in the supposed Iraqi quagmire indicate something is changing in that oil-rich cradle of civilization. With the death of the most dangerous man in Iraq -- perhaps the world -- and the final formation of the permanent Iraqi government, obstructionists here at home have had a hard time glossing over the importance of such successes. This, coupled with a surprise trip from Mr. Bush to Baghdad to meet the Iraqi leader and his newly assembled team, was all good and significant news. There is something inspiring -- à la toppled statues of fascists and purple ink-stained fingers of Muslim women enjoying their suffrage -- in seeing the world's most powerful symbol of democratic freedom meeting, face-to-face, with the first genuinely and democratically elected Arab prime minister. The unusualness of such an occurrence, in and of itself, could perhaps constitute its own turning point amidst a great and violent struggle.

But there is something else in the air -- not a wave of euphoria, for violence will still surely continue, but a realization that this is no longer just an American war. With the Iraqi cabinet formed -- and the defense, interior, and national security ministries filled -- we now have names and faces we can rightly associate with when speaking of joint U.S.-Iraqi counterterrorism efforts. This sudden recognition, along with the blood-spattered death-shots of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, has begun to reinforce the point that the jihadists and their sponsors in Iraq have failed at every strategic objective they have put forth.

Their tyrannical hosts were ousted in weeks and either killed or captured and muzzled. Sovereignty was transferred to a native interim governing council, also to their chagrin. Transitional elections were held, to their dismay. A democratic man-made constitution was written and passed in a national referendum, however much they attempted to prevent this from transpiring. Parliamentary elections that occurred, a unity parliament that was established, a competent cabinet that was formed, and the continued training of an indigenous security apparatus in the Iraqi security forces -- along with increasing economic, political, and cultural interconnectivity between the Iraqis and the world -- must be driving the Wahhabi al Qaida-types bananas.

< br> Their misfortune doesn't simply end with the assassination of their leader, nor with the constant shame knowing all of their stated objectives have failed in the face of American resolve and Iraqi nationalism. While the formation of an Iraqi government, the death of al Qaida's top chief, and the secret Bush visit to Baghdad were all the talk on media outlets, much has been overlooked, particularly the so-called "treasure trove" of information and intelligence found in the wake of al Zarqawi's killing, and the subsequent raids and captures.

In the past week alone, 104 terrorists met their maker and 759 were apprehended in 452 counterterror raids; 255 of which were joint U.S.-Iraqi raids, 143 of which were conducted by Iraqi forces independently. The 28 vast arms caches discovered were also overlooked, inasmuch as the hundreds of thousands of unearthed Iraqi bodies in mass graves have been neglected, in one of the saddest examples of unprofessional journalism in all the history of covering genocide.

Other high-value targets were toast, as well. Hamzi al Aini, an al Qaida hierarch, was captured in the town of Abu Saydah with a bloody saw in his hideout. Ahmed al Battawi, who has admitted to beheading hundreds, was detained by an elite Iraqi antiterrorist unit. Abbas al Mufraji, a top associate of al Zarqawi, was arrested, as were twenty-three other members of al Qaida's upper echelons. Seven high-ranking members of the Mujahideen Shura Council, an al Qaida-linked insurgent group, were seized as well.

All of this and more was either overlooked, glossed over, or downplayed by an increasingly unhinged Western media. Reuters perhaps won the award for the most bizarre reporting, with this wacky characterization of events: "U.S. air strikes killed an estimated 40 insurgents in western Iraq on Saturday, the military said, but in Baghdad a suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of an elite police unit, killing three." Notice how the righteous killing of 40 fascists is pooh-poohed, whereas the far less significant, albeit sadder, killing of three Iraqi police is announced with the prefix "but" -- and never, not once, vice versa.

Beyond all this, the proverbial tectonic geopolitical plates are shifting all throughout the country. Rather than the Iraqi leader calling for the death of Americans, he now calls for the death of terrorists and jihadist murderers, mocking and taunting them with the bravado one certain Texan could appreciate. Rather than the Iraqi defense minister promising to liquidate Jews, he is promising to exterminate Muslim fanatics. Rather than the Iraqi army conquering tiny Kuwait, it is rounding up hundreds of insurgents. Rather than the Iraqi national security minister promising Westerners with death and doom, he now predicts the beginning of the end for al Qaida in Iraq, basing his conclusions on a secret al Qaida letter, thought to have been written by Mr. al Zarqawi himself, which was found in the rubble of his safehouse.

In the letter, the al Qaidist author solemnly reviews the litany of reasons why al Qaida's head-honchos believe they are losing in Iraq. To paraphrase, it states time is now on the side of the Americans, the opportunity to kill American soldiers is increasingly difficult, Iraqi security forces are growing and thwarting al Qaida operations, al Qaida's image is largely tarnished due to killing fellow Muslims, U.S.-Iraqi assaults are relentless, sanctuary is hard to come by, funds are short, jihadist battlefield mistakes are frequent, and the situation is bleak.

Although it had not been independently confirmed as authentic, the somber pessimism of the al Qaida letter sounded very much like Mr. al Zarqawi's whining rant to Osama bin Laden in 2004: "We can pack up and leave and look for another land, just like it has happened in so many lands of jihad. Our enemy is growing stronger day after day and its intelligence information increases. By God, this is suffocation!"

< br> What is already al Qaida's worst week in Iraq is about to get a helluva' lot worse, as 75,000 Iraqi police and soldiers are prepping, on the Iraqi premier's orders, to solidify stability in Baghdad in the coming days in what will be the largest Iraqi operation inside the country since sovereignty was transferred two years ago. The world will see an expeditionary force of a larger, quarter-million strong Arab army -- the most professional, U.S.-trained, army in the region -- war against the underground IED and suicide vest. This operation will be large, heavy-handed, and righteously devastating. The lack of insurgent attacks around Baghdad in the coming days will be, thankfully, non-violent non-events, and therefore, non-news.

We can take this truism and apply it to Afghanistan as well. The cliché "no news is good news" is true, but if we're going to speak of media pundits and so-called "regional experts," the proper line should probably be "good news is no news." As I type, the largest counterterrorist operation in Afghanistan in four years is underway. Thus far, four-dozen jihadists have been killed to our zero fatalities. Twenty-four hours prior, in the Paktika province, 26 Taliban fighters were obliterated to our nil. Two days before that, during fighting in the Helmand province, 58 jihadists eradicated from the planet to our fatality-less afternoon. And on, and on, and on…