Is the West winning the war on terror? The question pops up daily, followed far too often by ignorant assertions and can’t. In effect, the answer is nothing less than a resounding yes.

Terror is a cancer that was never going to be eliminated with a single silver bullet. Like the ailment itself, it has to be isolated, contained, and suffocated.

In that sense, the monster is indeed gasping for oxygen. Let’s take an inventory:

In the West, an impressive wall of separation has been erected against Jihadists within. The introduction of a vast infrastructure of new laws redefining freedom of speech and militancy has enabled Europe, America, and Australia to threaten Muslim communities within their borders with a near suspension of civil rights should they flirt with militancy.

In addition, any further flows of new immigrants have by and large been blocked with draconian legislation virtually rendering it impossible to obtain visas, let alone immigrate. Just stand outside an American embassy in Cairo, Islamabad, Amman, or Riyadh to see the endless lines of those who will never be able to get in.

This may be regrettable, but it has been highly effective.

Western jails are overflowing with hundreds of militant Muslims, including immigrants and naturalized citizens of Muslim origins arrested under a variety of new hate or sedition laws. Militancy among Europe’s 35 million Muslims has been remarkably toned down to a whisper. A snapshot of the past year alone shows that mosques and Islamic groupings in Europe, America, and Australia have undergone major surgery.

Radical preachers have been invited to leave by fearful communities. Several have voluntarily returned to their countries of origin. The message being articulated is clear enough, as it was recently stated by the prime minister of Australia who told leaders of the Muslim communities there: Either conform to secular laws or leave.

Indeed, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavian nations, Spain, and Australia among others, have introduced laws allowing the state to strip militant Muslim subjects of their citizenship. Imams and preachers have to undergo a practical re-education.

Virtually every leader of Al Qaeda in Asia, Europe, and on the American continent is on the run, imprisoned, or dead. Osama Bin Laden and his deputies can do little more than smuggle tapes for broadcast on the Qatari satellite network, Al Jazeera. They can no longer use cell phones, faxes, or the Internet with impunity, let alone run an effective campaign of terror. One should never say never, but Western intelligence officials believe there cannot be a repeat of the September 11, 2001, attacks in America.

In the Muslim world itself, brutal autocratic governments – once content to let Jihadists be – are in the midst of a wake-up call, having become the targets. Armed terrorists are mercilessly tracked down without benefit of human or civil rights in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the Muslim world. When it comes to suppression, these regimes need not take lessons.

Money spigots have been turned off. World financial institutions and banks have stopped the flow of funds to and from Islamic entities on the slightest suspicion stranding even Islamic charities. The plight of the Hamas government is a dramatic example of how tight the shutdown has become. Since its government formed in Gaza, Hamas has been unable to pay salaries to its 160,000 employees for the second month running. Arab banks refuse to rout Arab League money to Hamas too, so as not to get on the wrong side of a comprehensive Western boycott.

The only regions where terror thrives today are those of the Muslim world itself, such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan. That too is regrettable, but in the end no harm is done there to the West.

In Iraq, the spreading civil war is between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims. Similarly, in theocratic Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda’s Jihadists are fighting the equally fundamentalist Saudi royal family. Oil exports and resources have been spared by and large because even the Jihadist opposition would like to have the income if it ever came to power.

True, in Iraq, the oil industry has been wrecked by insurgents, but that stands as the exception to the rule and a particular byproduct of extraordinary chaos. A civil war that has raged in Algeria between the corrupt army regime and murderous radical Jihadists since 1992, taking 110,000 lives, has yet to diminish Algerian oil and gas export by a single barrel or cubic foot.