It's great that Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi is dead, having been killed by two 500 pound bombs 30 miles outside Baghdad. Here's the video of Al-Zarqawi being killed, courtesy of Michelle Malkin.
In all, a great victory for America, Iraq, and our allies. Sure, it's a small step, and not decisive on its own, but it's a highly visible step that illustrates how the War on Terror will ultimately be won: by killing one terrorist at a time. House by house, group by group. The flip side of that is converting the terror-supporting population from feudal tribalism to modern freedom. Some say it can't be done, but I think the Al-Zarqawi story shows that it can:
"Al-Zarqawi was eliminated," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said. ...The Jordanian-born terrorist was Iraq's most-wanted militant and was nearly as notorious as Osama bin Laden, to whom he swore allegiance in 2004. The United States put a $25 million bounty on his head, the same as bin Laden. Al-Maliki told al-Arabiya television the bounty would be honored, saying "we will meet our promise," without elaborating. ...
Al-Maliki said the Wednesday night airstrike by U.S. forces was based on intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by area residents.
There aren't as many safehouses as there used to be. Why? Because we're slowly but surely winning over the terrorists' neighbors to our side. It's only been a few years and there's already a lot of progress -- just wait till next generation!
Austin Bay points out that "This is one strategic reason we had to have a battlefield in the 'middle of the Middle East.'".
I wonder if anyone has heard what Nicholas Berg's father has to say about the killing of Al-Zarqawi, the man believed to have brutally murdered his son on video. Amazingly, Mr. Berg feels bad about it, saying in an interview with Soledad O'Brien on CNN this morning: "...my reaction is I'm sorry whenever any human being dies. Zarqawi is a human being. He has a family who are reacting just as my family reacted when Nick was killed, and I feel bad for that." This is just the tip of the iceberg. Click the link to CNN to get the rest of Berg's bites of pacifist wisdom:
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/berg.interview