Mr. Zarkowi has assumed room temp.

[Undertoad]

Think the long game, Maui. The Bush admin treats print media with contempt. If the morning papers don't have the biggest news in months, being reported on all media this morning except for the morning papers, it is most certainly not a victory for the morning papers.

[Griff]

I'm listening to Penn and Drudge talking about the net right now. I wonder if the papers will find a reason to exist?

[Griff]

addendum to that thought: The NYT headlines in my e-mail does not have the Zarqawi story...

[Maui Nick]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Think the long game, Maui. The Bush admin treats print media with contempt. If the morning papers don't have the biggest news in months, being reported on all media this morning except for the morning papers, it is most certainly not a victory for the morning papers.

You watch TV news on the subway? Probably not.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Think the long game, Maui. The Bush admin treats print media with contempt. If the morning papers don't have the biggest news in months, being reported on all media this morning except for the morning papers, it is most certainly not a victory for the morning papers.

Our morning paper had it and broke this news to me this Thursday, 06-08-06.

Tw is wrong on a couple of counts: no one knowledgeable actually thinks al-Zarqawi was "THE leader of the insurgency." (Tw likes to set up straw men, under the impression we don't see him doing it.) Al-Z. (born Achmad Khalaila) functioned as al-Quaeda and was intimate with OBL, and publicly declared himself an ally to OBL and the al-Q boss in Iraq. This is sufficient for me, if not for the Cellar's resident crazy, who, using a train of thought as crooked as a kangaroo's penis, will remain in denial of something reasonable men will find reasonable.

The "cut and run after declaring victory because we got a bigwig" idea is no good either. The "exit strategy" remains the simple thing it always was: win. A strong democracy in Iraq, strong enough to consume its slavemaker, totalitarian, socialist enemies and clawers after their previous condition of unique privilege in a cleansing fire, is that win. Seeking substitutes, any substitutes, for victory is myopic and unwise. It will mean that we'd have to fight a larger war in that region some years down the road. Better to sustain the momentum and get the job done this time, not some other time.

[xoxoxoBruce]

From Michael Yon's site;

Coalition forces acting on a tip reportedly from within his own organization leveled the safe house outside of Baquba where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was hiding yesterday, killing the terrorist.

By his own account, al-Zarqawi is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and many Coalition forces and contractors. An acolyte of Osama Bin Laden, al-Zarqawi was, to many, the face of terrorism in Iraq. This was partly the result of Bin Laden’s annointment of him as chief deputy there, but more so because of his sophisticated manipulation of the media and internet. His slick campaign videos, widely distributed and broadcast by media outlets around the world, depicted al-Zarqawi as a hands-on, stealthy military leader; but clearly, he was not a tactical genius. His greatest victories were public relation coups that catapulted him into the role of figurehead for terrorists. Our courageous friends in Jordan, who have also suffered at the hands of al-Zarqawi, are said to have aided in his destruction.

His death will not likely fracture the terror campaign in Iraq because of the disparity of the insurgency itself, comprised of many distinct and disjointed elements, not all of whom were following al-Zarqawi.

Nevertheless, this is an important victory in the GWOT showing that persistent effort can and will produce definitive results. But al-Zarqawi was largely a media-produced terror hero, now that he is gone, let us not produce another.