A piece in the Christian Science Monitor tells the story of the war that the terrorists are definitely winning:
“In 2005 Al Qaeda’s No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wrote a letter to the then top insurgent leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. ‘[M]ore than half of this battle,’ he wrote, ‘is taking place in the battlefield of the media…. [W]e are in a media battle, in a race for the hearts and minds of our umma [people].’…
As the struggle in Iraq between the insurgents on the one hand and US military and Iraqi security forces on the other reaches a climactic phase, it is clear that the insurgents, far from being a band of crude guerilla fighters, have taken the Al Qaeda leader’s injunction to heart and have coupled the tactics of terror with a sophisticated knowledge and use of modern media.
“Now some US military officers, too, charge that a clever enemy media campaign is gaining traction and that the US is losing the war in information about battlefield operations.
“A Marine officer whose credibility I trust cites an operation of success in the Fallujah region earlier this month that was reported as a disaster by US and British media companies. His unit had established a new precinct headquarters for Iraqi police, Army troops, and US Marines to patrol and protect a dedicated area. It was well received by the local populace and almost 200 Iraqis volunteered for police recruitment. Insurgents sought to disrupt it but were routed.”