That's the Sound of Me Joining the Applause

All day I wanted to get to blogging about Zarqawi's death. Finally, now, even though it's old news, I get to. How does it make me feel (that's the big question when you're in film school)? Goooooood. I doubt if I've ever been happier about the death of another human being - although Zarqawi only qualifies in biological terms. This guy was clearly one of the most vile pieces of trash on the planet.

There are several strategic reasons why Zarqawi's death is to be applauded:

1. Boost American and Iraqi morale. Although I would hardly argue that killing Zarqawi alone justifies the Iraq invasion, it certainly is a mark of progress and an accomplishment by the troops on the ground. Specifically, Task Force 145, which the counterterrorism blog has been following for some time, who seemed to be behind the ramping up of pressure on Zarqawi's network the past month or so.

2. Eliminating a tough, resiliant leader of our enemy. Say what you will about Zarqawi, he was a good terrorist. Good at terrorizing people, raising money, staging attacks, publicizing his organization. Good terrorists, I think, are just like anything else, hard to come by. It takes years of training and experience and aptitude to become an A-list terrorist and I don't think it's that easy to replace these guys. That's why we need to keep after them and keep killing and/or capturing.

3. Raising the Cost of being a terrorist. After 9/11, we realized the cost of being a terrorist wasn't high enough. Yes, you made it onto the FBI list and weren't welcome in the country, but there were plenty of places in the world you could go and hide out. Killing Zarqawi provides a good example of how sticking after these guys will eventually yield results and that the outcome for ANY terrorist will eventually be the same. They need to know this, that becoming a high or medium profile Islamo Fascist terrorist means we will eventually capture or kill you. This is one of the main reasons I am not in the camp who believes OBL isn't operationally important anymore....

4. Cut Off the Face. Zarqawi was the face of the insurgency. He was a rallying point, a consistant force, that never quit. He and his crew were the vanguard of the insurgency. This may yet prove to be wrong, but we'll see what happens...I imagine this hurts the insurgents long term ability to raise money and rally new recruits.