The completion of 600 reconstruction projects goes unnoticed. The testimony of countless politicians, soldiers and Iraqis as to the improvement in Iraq goes unnoticed. The encouraging pictures of Iraqis and Americans, Muslims and Christians, all working together are not shown.

Negative reporting sells the best, but it has taken over what we're learning about the war. I cannot make a better point of this than asking readers to do a search on the Internet for testimonies of soldiers and politicians going to Iraq and seeing the difference. Rather than rephrase those testimonies, let me give another look at what's going on.

A brutal dictator and a state sponsor of terrorism (including al-Qaida) has been removed. Demonstrations for democracy and freedom are becoming the norm in countries like Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Saudi Arabia. (Of course, I only know about that because I read the Arab press; no American papers are reporting it.)

Syria, surrounded by pro-West states, is making moves to pull out of Lebanon and has never felt such pressure to stop supporting terrorism. Reforms are occurring in that Baathist country, including banning the law that everyone in government must be a Baathist.

Iran is at its weakest point ever, as was clearly demonstrated in late June when mass demonstrations went on for weeks. The call for reforms there are getting louder and louder, and the regime is in its final days. Iran, too, finds itself surrounded by allies in the war on terror.

Saudi Arabia is even being forced to act against terrorism and is also engaging in reforms. The country's first municipal elections are being set up. Over 600 terrorists have been arrested in the past six months, and 3,500 preachers have been "re-taught," while the ones unwilling to change their pledges to incite Muslims have been fired. New restrictions on charities are being implemented, and countless terrorist attacks have been foiled.

Almost every war in history has a guerilla-war element. Time and patience are the cures for this disease. Sure, some mistakes were made in Iraq – borders were not secured, there aren't enough troops and the Iraqi army was dissolved instead of used for security. But the fact that the war is going into its seventh month, the fact that 600 reconstruction projects have been finished, the fact that most of the Saddam regime leadership has been killed or captured, are all ignored because American troops are being killed.

About 330 troops have been killed, but Iraq is huge, and we are being attacked by five powerful forces. Before the war, I remember warning that although Saddam's regime would collapse, this would be the hardest and most critical battle in the war on terror.

Geographically, the U.S. is situated in a spot where victory will permanently change the tide in the war on terror and result in less bloodshed in the future. Non-combat warfare could be waged that would be more successful than any military campaign could hope for.

But I also warned that this would be the hardest battle, because we'd fight several forces. In World War II, we fought Japan, Italy and Germany. In this one battle, we'll be fighting the Baathist resistance forces, terrorist volunteers and forces fully backed by Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. They are using all their resources to fight us, because a victory in Iraq means their days of sponsoring terror (which their regimes were founded upon) are numbered.

But we have the upper hand. Anyone with knowledge of the forces we would fight would not have expected a mere 330 troops to be killed about seven months into the conflict. As progress is made, the sharp and sudden increase we saw by the appearance of foreign fighters (which likely would have traveled to the West if Iraq had not been such a nearby battlefield) will be matched by an even sharper and more sudden decrease in the attacks. Soon after that, the light of democracy in Iraq will give even more hope to the freedom fighters in the region.

This is a psychological war, and we can only win it by being steadfast. As progress is made, foreign fighters will be unable to hide. This is the most dangerous time in the Iraq war, and the progress being made is unmistakable – if you choose to see. And so I conclude with a message to the media: The Iraqis are cheerfully watching the progress being made, and we, too, should be seeing it.