Jun 8, 2006
Good News
Finally some great news from Iraq. They got Zarqawi [framed]. Very glad. He was an evil terrorist who killed innocents in Iraq and Jordan. He was, also, less than the sum of his parts. This article from early April in WaPo charts how his persona was deliberately constructed and hyped by the US.
In that vein, I highly recommend Mary Ann Weaver's The Short, Violent Life of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - soon to be the most linked article of the month - in The Atlantic which spells it out:
He continued, “The Americans have been patently stupid in all of this. They’ve blown Zarqawi so out of proportion that, of course, his prestige has grown. And as a result, sleeper cells from all over Europe are coming to join him now.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Your government is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
All that aside. It is indeed a victory for the civilians who perished at his hands. I have grave doubts whether this will have any impact on the stable instability in Iraq. Nir Rosen's Iraq Is the Republic of Fear remains the most honest assessment that I have seen. The real story in Iraq was never Zarqawi. It was, and remains, Moqtada al-Sadr.
In that vein, I highly recommend Mary Ann Weaver's The Short, Violent Life of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - soon to be the most linked article of the month - in The Atlantic which spells it out:
He continued, “The Americans have been patently stupid in all of this. They’ve blown Zarqawi so out of proportion that, of course, his prestige has grown. And as a result, sleeper cells from all over Europe are coming to join him now.” He paused for a moment, then said, “Your government is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
All that aside. It is indeed a victory for the civilians who perished at his hands. I have grave doubts whether this will have any impact on the stable instability in Iraq. Nir Rosen's Iraq Is the Republic of Fear remains the most honest assessment that I have seen. The real story in Iraq was never Zarqawi. It was, and remains, Moqtada al-Sadr.
ALSO: See Abu Aardvark and Juan Cole's informed opinions and this CNN interview with Michael Berg [via]