Mr. Zarkowi has assumed room temp.

[Happy Monkey]

If they make too bg a deal out of it, people might start to expect it to change something.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Maui Nick

Right now, the Bush2 administration needs a victory in which it can control the message. This could have been it. ... Controlling your own message is one of the basic tenets of political science. This administration couldn't even handle that.

The idea that Zarquawi was Al Qaeda was part of the spin and myth. Zarquawi was about as much Al Qaeda as GE in Britian is same as GE in America.

Also that Zarquawi is THE leader of the insurgency is also a myth. How much of a leader was he? Well, after his death, tens of other 'safe house' locations were raided. Penetration of Zarquawi's network is suggested to be vast.

But again, how much of the insurgency was Zarquawi's network? This is where we learn. Starting maybe next week, we should learn based upon the reduction of bombings in Iraq.

Many foolishly speculated that two bombings this morning in Baghdad were in response to Zarquawi's death. Nonsense. What Zarquawi did today would take weeks to become action. We shall see how much his so called 'Al Qaeda' network was responsible for insurgency attacks. A very interesting fact is about to be learned.

[9th Engineer]

I really don't think this is a victory at all. People like him are weeds, cut one down and two more grow in his place.

[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.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Terrorism is always partly advertising, and this kind of political theater was present in al-Zarqawi's acts. Terrorism without public relations coups associated with it gets nowhere. Politics by other means, no? Mean means, but means.

[richlevy]

What impressed me the most was GWB tempering expectations and stating that while this is good news, there will still be an active insurgency. It was a sober and realistic assessment of the situation we are likely to encounter in the months ahead even with Zarqawi dead.

No "insugency is on it's last legs" horseshit.

Sigh. Our baby boy is growing up. By the time he leaves office he might actually have acheived the wisdom he should have had the day he showed up for the job.

[Undertoad]

That's good news because wince the WH has been wrong about everything else, it means the insurgency is over

Actually my newest wrong guess is that it is. More violence will be sectarian sunni vs shiite stuff which means it truly is time to step off and let them take the reins.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You may be right, UT. The Iraqis may decide with al-Zarqawi gone, it's no longer an organized insurgency that they can't fight and make an effort to get involved in stopping small local cells.
We can hope.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

And now Iraqis are carrying out hundreds of raids on hundreds of terrorist cancerous cells in the body politic. I'm pleased.