If anyone has seen the movie The Untouchables, you'll remember the scene where Sean Connery and Kevin Costner are in a church talking about the best approach to bring down Al Capone. Connery says (and I paraphrase) "They kill one of us you kill three of them. It's the only way to show them that we mean business." Great strategy in a movie, but I'm not sure if it's the best method of international relations.
Yesterday, following up tips from Jordanian spies, and possibly Iraqi civilians in the region(http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/06/zarqawi-killed.html), the US assassinated Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Al Qaida leader in Iraq, along with 7 of his aids. US and Iraq troops also raided 17 other sites around Baghdad following the bombing.
If anyone expects me to shed tears over Zarqawi, think again. This was one of the most brutal men in the world today, and I believe most of the reason he was discovered stemmed from his last two weeks butchering of several Iraqi locals and leaving their heads discarded in fruit baskets. However, before we break out into dancing and rejoicing, we should take a moment to see what really has been accomplished. Al-Qaida's already martyred him:
"Al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi's death and vowed to continue its "holy war," according to a statement posted on a Web site. "We want to give you the joyous news of the martyrdom of the mujahed sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The death of our leaders is life for us. It will only increase our persistence in continuing holy war so that the word of God will be supreme."
And there will still need to be an investigation before we really know the identities of the six others who were with him. Remember that one of the reasons why Clinton never ordered the bombing of Bin Laden in Sudan was because Al Qaida happens to travel on the road with their families, so don't be surprised if a random woman or child pops up in the body count. Facts like these tend to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the people we're supposedly protecting.
Yeah, I know I sound like a party pooper, but I get a bit depressed when I find assassination praised in the American media, and even more depressed when I find sad, cold comfort in the death and suffering of anyone, even if that person was a blooded savage. Guess it comes with being civilized I suppose. In any event, it still remains to be seen if this will take the wind out of Al Qaida's sails. Was Zarqawi such a wonderful administrator that the insurgency will fall apart without him? Or did he hold on to his leadership by being the cruelest son-of-a-bitch around? If it's the latter than we're still in for a long haul because in a war, intelligence may be scarce, but brutes will be in abundance.
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