Good news! Really?

Yea, you've all heard the news already:

Iraq terror leader al-Zarqawi killed

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 8, 2006, 9:22 AM EDT


BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings, was killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs on his isolated safehouse, officials said Thursday. His death was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi and several aides, including spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman, were killed Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles from Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, officials said.

I'm going to give credit where credit is due: the Bush administration has its first clear win since May, 2003.

It only took them three years to find a guy who produced more obscene videotapes than Pamela Anderson. AND he wasn't hiding in some non-descript mountain range on the border of Pakistan. He was in country, a country that had 100,000 GIs combing it for him.

Whoopee!

So what does this mean?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's a symbolic victory, to be sure, and would only be topped as a symbolic victory if they had actually killed him in a firefight. Something about killing a general in battle seems much more satisfying, but I bet the Bushies will take what they can get at this point.

Will it stop the insurgency? No. It might slow it down a little, but Zarqawi was an outsider, a Jordanian who utilized mostly foreign fighters to do his work, which was primarily to kill Iraqis. He had a particular fondness for those he viewed as collaborators, but he mostly stirred up the shit.

I doubt that's going to stop anytime soon, no matter what little bandaid of a government we put in place temporarily until the country blows itself up, merely to give us cover to get out first.

There are already rumours rampant that Al Qaeda in Iraq was no longer run by Zarqawi, that Abu al-Masri had already taken the day to day operations of the group, and Zarqawi was more of a propaganda figurehead.

Didn't seem to slow them down, that transition, which I feel may have taken place earlier this year, when there had been a definite lull in action.

Be that as it may, if I was President, I'd take this opportunity to get the hell out. Politically speaking, it's a chance to say, "Well, our job here is finished, we killed Al Qaeda in Iraq, so buhbye! Don't forget to write!" and move the hell out, ASAP.

They won't. Pity we're governed by idiots.

But, Abu? Good riddance.

UPDATE: Anybody remember this trope, one of Bush's greatest hits?

In Colin Powell's famous February 2003 speech to the United Nations urging war against Iraq, Zarqawi was cited as an example of Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism. In his speech, Powell mistakenly referred to Zarqawi as a Palestinian, but Powell and the Bush administration continued to stand by statements that Zarqawi linked Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.

I wonder which member of the White House Press Corps will make note of it...probably none, altho my money is on David Gregory. (Katrina, who reminded me of this and thus gets a tip of my straw boater, picks Helen Thomas)

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky

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