al-Zarqawi dead, liberals sad

Stingray: a blog for salty Christians ^ | June 7, 2006 | Michael McCullough

[DallasMike]

By now, everyone knows that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has assumed room temperature, which in the Iraqi summer, is probably more like the temperature in hell. It's a good thing that al-Zarqawi is no stranger to hot temperatures because I have the feeling that he's finding out about now that Allah is a demon. From the Centcom press release:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Coalition Forces killed al-Qaeda terrorist leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and one of his key lieutenants, spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, yesterday, June 7, at 6:15 p.m. in an air strike against an identified, isolated safe house.

“Tips and intelligence from Iraqi senior leaders from his network led forces to al-Zarqawi and some of his associates who were conducting a meeting approximately eight kilometers north of Bequeath when the air strike was launched.

“Iraqi police were first on the scene after the air strike, and elements of Multi-National Division North, arrived shortly thereafter. Coalition Forces were able to identify al-Zarqawi by fingerprint verification, facial recognition and known scars.

Al-Zarqawi and al-Qaeda in Iraq have conducted terrorist activities against the Iraqi people for years in attempts to undermine the Iraqi national government and Coalition efforts to rebuild and stabilize Iraq. He is known to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqis. Al-Zarqawi’s death is a significant blow to al-Qaeda and another step toward defeating terrorism in Iraq.

“Although the designated leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq is now dead, the terrorist organization still poses a threat as its members will continue to try to terrorize the Iraqi people and destabilize their government as it moves toward stability and prosperity. Iraqi forces, supported by the Coalition, will continue to hunt terrorists that threaten the Iraqi people until terrorism is eradicated in Iraq.”

Not only is al-Zarqawi dead, but so are 7 of his top advisors. That's a good thing. In terms of World War II, it would be like us killing Hermann Göring plus 7 top generals. One would think that this would be accepted by everyone as a great victory, but unfortunately that is not so. Here's a post at the Democratic Party Website (hat tip to Dr. Sanity):

We never know whether these announcements are true or not, but true or not this is a great opportunity for Democrats. We can now insist that we declare victory in Iraq and bring our troops home.

These people just cannot seem to fathom that we are at war against a culture — radical Islam — that wants to kill us and will do so if they have the chance. Appeasement did not stop Nazism, Japanese militarism, or communism and there is no reason to suspect that it would stop radical Islam either.

From MSNBC:

In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaeda had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.

Never mind that Bush had barely been in office 8 months before 9/11 or that Clinton had at least twice turned down the chance to extradite bin Laden. And what about the lab to produce ricin and cyanide? The mainstream media has told us time and again that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. al-Zarqawi would not have been able to set up the lab without approval from Saddam. So now MSNBC admits that Iraq had a WMD program all along. Nice of them to finally admit it.

Reuters (the Terrorist News Network) seems to believe that killing al-Zarqawi is a bad thing:

BERLIN, June 8 (Reuters) - The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi removes the man who took Iraq's insurgency to new heights of savagery but it also creates a martyr whose inspiration will mobilize new recruits.

Arab and Western security analysts were agreed on Thursday that Zarqawi's death in a U.S. air raid would not end the insurgency, even if it represents a rare triumph in Iraq for the Bush administration.

"There will be people that will be mobilized to join the caravan of martyrs, to emulate his example and to Honor him," said Magnus Ranstorp, an al Qaeda expert at the Swedish National Defense College.

Of course al-Zarqawi's death makes him a martyr to certain lunatics but there are people today who consider Hitler to be a martyr. Not one though has managed to have any leadership qualities to attract people to their cause. If today's Reuters news staff were covering World War II, they would claim that killing Hitler and occupying Germany would only make things worse. Al-Zarqawi, dumb as he was, does not have anyone with more smarts than he had to succeed him.

AllahPundit has an excellent video remix of Zarqawi's demise that is a must-see. You can view it at AllahPundit's site, or at YouTube (you have to sign in to prove you're over 16, or you can just download and watch it from my site. 

 

Pooh on the Democrats. If we killed every terrorist tomorrow and Bush walked across the waters of the Potomac to announce the victory, the Democrats would still blame him for everything from the economy (which is doing great), to the war in Iraq (which is going great), to not being able to swim. Christopher Hitchens has a great piece — A Good Day's Work — on why al-Zarqawi's death really matters.

It hasn't taken long for the rain to start falling on this parade. Nick Berg's father, a MoveOn type now running for Congress on the Green Party ticket, has already said that he blames President George Bush for the video-beheading of his own son (but of course) and mourned the passing of Zarqawi as he would the death of any man (but of course, again). The latest Atlantic has a brilliantly timed cover story by Mary Anne Weaver, which tends to the view that Zarqawi was essentially an American creation, but seems to undermine its own prominence by suggesting that, in addition to that, Zarqawi wasn't all that important.

Not so fast. Zarqawi contributed enormously to the wrecking of Iraq's experiment in democratic federalism. He was able to help ensure that the Iraqi people did not have one single day of respite between 35 years of war and fascism, and the last three-and-a-half years of misery and sabotage. He chose his targets with an almost diabolical cunning, destroying the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad (and murdering the heroic envoy Sérgio Vera de Melo) almost before it could begin operations, and killing the leading Shiite Ayatollah Hakim outside his place of worship in Najaf. His decision to declare a jihad against the Shiite population in general, in a document of which Weaver (on no evidence) doubts the authenticity, has been the key innovation of the insurgency: applying lethal pressure to the most vulnerable aspect of Iraqi society. And it has had the intended effect, by undermining Grand Ayatollah Sistani and helping empower Iranian-backed Shiite death squads.

...

If we had withdrawn from Iraq already, as the "peace" movement has been demanding, then one of the most revolting criminals of all time would have been able to claim that he forced us to do it. That would have catapulted Iraq into Stone Age collapse and instated a psychopathic killer as the greatest Muslim soldier since Saladin. As it is, the man is ignominiously dead and his dirty connections a lot closer to being fully exposed. This seems like a good day's work to me.

The death of al-Zarqawi and 7 of his top aides is a major victory in the war on terror. His network is in tatters and those who still follow his memory will make mistakes and allow themselves to be caught or killed. Today was an important day in the war on terror. The liberals whine when we call them unpatriotic but how can they be anything but unpatriotic when they downplay the importance of killing al-Zarqawi?

[DallasMike]

Stingray:  Conservative Christian News and Commentary

[matt1234]

Brad Odland has threatened, that's right...threatened conservatives by stating, "Hey conservatives...I am watching YOU" while he posted the following at DU:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/LeftHander/7

There, he says, in reference to conservatives, "War is the goal." That's right, according to Mr. Odland, you conservatives started and perpetuate war.

Please email Brad Odland at bodland@sbcglobal.net and let him know your thoughts. Since he states, "I am watching YOU," please let him know we are watching him, too. He lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States. One of his home sites is http://www.blogger.com/profile/3020080