So Zarqawi is dead. Good riddance. To all the skeptics out there, it seems that Zarqawi wasn’t a "US invention" or a "creation by Jordanian intelligence" after all! What will the conspiracy theorists say now? "We need proof!" "We want to see the corpse." [There’s now pictorial evidence] Frankly, I would have preferred seeing him captured and then put to justice so that everyone could see how sinister this man was and that he really existed, inflicting terror upon millions and millions of people.
David Igantius wrote in the Washington Post in November of last year that Jordan was determined to capture or kill Zarqawi following the terrorist attacks on the kingdom.
A senior official told me that Jordan is considering aggressive new anti-terrorism operations that will seek to capture or kill Abu Musab Zarqawi and his top lieutenants. When I asked King Abdullah about the campaign, he explained, "Zarqawi brought the war to our doorstep, and there’s a feeling in Jordan that we’d like to bring him to justice."
Well, they were true to their word as:
A Jordanian official said Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking al-Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants. Source: [MSNBC]
Today is a good day for humankind!
Update: Zarqawi’s relatives are now calling him a martyr. Yeah, whatever! I hope he enjoys a prime place in hell as a slave to the devil himself. What’s wrong with these people, really! Were they not the very same ones who declared that they disowned him following the terror attacks in Jordan last November.
Update 2: According to Aljazeera (Arabic), Al-Qaeda in Iraq has confirmed Zarqawi’s death.
This is great news. But this is only a battle won in this war on terror. Does this mean things will improve? who knows. we will just have to sit back, wait and see.
I do wish he was captured alive and brought to justice in Iraq and in JOrdan. I mean imagine if Jordan brought him to Jordan to bring him to justice would his family still call him a martyr or show their “loyalty” to the king?
“conspiracy theorists”
You mean the type that goes around making things up about americans invading iraq and jews invading palestine and arab dictators being protected by the CIA? is that the crazy kind of people you are refering too?
Surely the closure is worth a great deal. As you can see from many of Natasha’s posts and that of many other Jordanians, the whole “Jordanian-born” situation was really problematic. I think, however, that it would have been good to have captured him alive. No one can say with absolute certitude what awaits him in the next life, if that’s your bag o’ tricks. But you could have assured him some hell on earth. Getting killed by a bomb from above was likely the easier way out, compared with time spent in trial, then in prison, then execution. It seems like having him speak about all of this in court, owning up to what he did and did not do, would also silence some of those that regard him as stooge. I’m not a real big supporter of the death penalty. It seems merited in some cases, such as this one. But to basically have it without trial as was the case here seems to me to have let him off a bit too easily. It was inevitable that he’d be called “martyr” if he went out that way. The Zacarias Moussaoui case in the US was an interesting test of this situation. You got the feeling through the whole of that trial that Moussaoui wanted to be killed, knowing he’d be thought a martyr. When he wasn’t, he suddenly recanted all his talk about Al Qaeda and his role. You saw the weakness of the man, his resolve and perhaps the movement. It would’ve been good to have that here. But it’s a bit nasty to talk of the best way of killing a man so, I suppose, in the end he’s gone either way. Khalas, good riddance.
I am interested to know whether the happy post-ers (present company included) would be as happy if the guy was only captured. Natasha had mentioned that she would have been happier if he were only captured. I might be going off on a limb here but I don’t think all would be as happy if he didnt die. You cant but admit that part of you is happy he died for the sole fact that you got some closure on the whole Z ordeal (the general ‘you’ here). I am not saying that he should live, the guy bombed a hotel owned by my family and managed to kill a cousin in the porcess, so I am ok with the outcome. However, there is something to be said here about the duality of man, and I call it duality knowing that those who wish to counter my post will call it hypocrisy. Just to be clear, my duality is such that I have never been happy over a person’s death, but here I am, relieved and almost smiling. Its a dangerous road to tread, for it is a common trait with the extremists we so condemn.
Yes, and they also swore loyalty to the King (as if not being loyal to the King was somehow a legitimate honest option). Now you know what their word and their loyalty are worth.
Zarqawi was a terrorist and a traitor. His family are apparently traitors too, if only in word.
Congratulations, No more zargawi but I really wish I can see his body not to verify or to make sure it’s him but to piss on his bloody face.
The following comments do make you wonder how short these family members’ memory actually are. They are heaping praise on their own — at the very least their nation’s — aggressor:p>
Scooby,
Allah ybarik feek;-)
Luai,
You know me too well…:)
I just knew you’d be all over this wonderful breaking news this moring. It’s truly a great day for the world! Hopefully OBL is next.
Mabrook Natasha. Good riddance indeed.