A Little Good News From Iraq

That odious blowhard Limbaugh-wannabe Neil Cavuto will be so happy. The news media can finally report both violence AND good news from Iraq at the same time. Wingnuts everywhere can rejoice as we finally got a member of the Al-Qaida leadership that was not part of the #3 Man Continuum.

I think Bill in Portland Maine displays the proper gravitas for this situation:

CHEERS to finding a really evil needle in a really big haystack. U.S. forces rocked terrorist Abu Musab "Dick" al-Zarqawi's world last night when they tossed a thousand pounds of explosive whupass down his gullet. They found his body in the bedroom. And the kitchen. And the den. And the garage. And the neighbor's apartment. And I think I found an eyebrow in my Cocoa Puffs this morning. My only regret: he didn't know what hit him.

P.S. Virgins denied, creep.

P.P.S. For those of you keeping score at home, this is Iraqi Turning Point #697.

Let me start by saying I'm glad the bastard's dead. I totally disagree with the Iraq war in all its grotesqueness, but I recognize that Zarqawi is exactly the kind of terrorist leader that needs to be eradicated. He has led his faction of Al-Qaida in much violence against both the Iraqis and our soldiers. From his own words, we know he was an ideological extremist trying to violently spread his narrow religious fundamentalism and nationalism to a people that clearly didn't want to buy what he was selling.

Having said that, I also must immediately piss on the parade of rightwing self-congratulatory masturbation that will no doubt be ensuing with news of Zarqawi's demise. From all that I've read, Zarqawi was more of a manufactured villain, his infamy primed and pumped by the Bush administration in order to put a face on the nebulous Al-Qaida menace in Iraq. Obviously bin Laden will no longer do, as his ability to elude our military forces is a serious black-eye on Bush's foreign policy. Zarqawi was certainly an evil, violent man and the world at large is better off without him. However, he was much more a Jabba the Hutt level villain than a Darth Vader, to use the rightwing's "movie of the week" framing on the "War on Terror".

Perhaps this will take Al-Qaida In Iraq out of the fight, at least for awhile, though I suspect that's wishful thinking. Even if it did, killing Zarqawi does nothing to address the other myriad facets of the insurgency, nor does it solve the plethora of problems facing the new Iraqi government. It's a moral victory at best, and should be celebrated as such. But, along the lines of Saddam Hussein's capture or his sons' deaths, it really isn't likely to change the situation on the ground. The Al-Qaida hydra always has another head...