Caroline Glick explains why what happened to today is so momentous, and such a crucial psychological blow to the enemies of freedom (registration required).

Saddam’s ability to remain at large bolstered his henchmen and empowered jihadists throughout the Arab and Muslim world to the cause of defeating the US and its allies.

The psychological impact on Saddam’s loyalists and on terrorists around the world of the picture of the tyrant’s dirty, mired face and meek complicity during his medical examination by a US army doctor is immeasurable. Today they are forced to ask the question, “Why should we die when Saddam surrendered so abjectly?”

It has been argued that it was wrong for the Americans to show such pictures of Saddam. Doing so, it was said, will enrage jihadists who will fight all the more desperately to regain the honor lost by Saddam’s humiliation.

The problem with this argument is that it fails to take common sense into account. Saddam’s surrender is a signal to his allies as much as to his victims.