Zarqawi's Demise; Different Angle, Same Conclusion

Reality beat me to the punch on this one, but I thought it would be fun to put a slightly different twist on the same story. In the end, the conclusion is the same. The death of Al-Zarqawi is not that big of a deal, regardless of what you might hear from the Boosh administration. Here we go,

A Major Victory in the War on Terror


The US claims a “major victory in the War on Terror” with the killing of Al-Zarqawi. Using a rare bit of common sense, this administration does warn that the war is not over, and that insurgent attacks will likely continue. They do, however, say that this is a “major blow” to the insurgency. Hate to burst your bubble, Boosh, but…….

Zarqawi was not a friend of Osama bin-Laden, in fact, he was a bit of an embarrassment. Bin-Laden did not approve of Zarqawi’s methods, his way of beheading hostages on national television, or his statements that were suddenly becoming much too frequent. Bin-Laden thought of him as an out of control wildcat who did more to fracture the cohesiveness of Al-Qaeda than to help it. He led a splinter group of radical insurgents, which is why you heard him called the leader of “al-Qaeda in Iraq.” In short, bin-Laden is not sorry to see him gone. That will not prevent him, however, from being used, in his death, as a martyr or rallying cry to recruit more insurgents. One can thank the mishandling of the event by the American leadership for that. He could easily have been taken alive, but they chose to "light up the skies" with 500 lb. bombs instead, all for public consumption. They also managed to take a few innocents with him in the process. The intensified bombings since his death have proven his martyrdom to be the case.

The Military’s Effectiveness in Hunting Him Down

While Boosh and the military want to champion this as the fruits of hard labor and effective "on the ground intelligence," nothing could be further from the truth. We have allegedly been “hunting” this man for many years, yet he was not located due to any great intelligence gathering on the part of US military operations. (Boosh would use the term US/Coalition forces, but I refuse to do so because, as we know, there is no coalition) Zarqawi was given up by his own people, pure and simple. The military received a tip telling them the location of his spiritual advisor, Sheik Abdul-Rahman, and that this man was soon to meet with Zarqawi. It then simply became a mission of following the spiritual advisor until the meeting occurred. Great intelligence work? Hardly. More simply a matter of accepting the gift that was bestowed upon our military intelligence.

The fact is that Zarqawi had become an al-Qaeda liability, and it was time for him to go. He was stomping on the toes of bin-Laden, and doing it in a way which was causing bin-Laden to seem less important. Stealing the headlines, if you will. And, stealing them in a much too public fashion. Zarqawi was becoming a media darling, releasing tapes on a much too frequent basis. This is not the style of a stealth operation, as you have seen from the actions of bin-Laden over his career as the worlds’ greatest terrorist. There are often years between bin-Laden's public relations releases, and this is done with a purpose in mind. Allowing Zarqawi to continue unfettered may well have hurt the cause of al-Qaeda more than did his termination. So, they gave him up, knowing full well that the Boosh administration would champion this as a “great victory.” Now, al-Qaeda can re-group around the “next” Zarqawi, one who will be kept much more under the thumb of bin-Laden and his representatives.

The Reward: The American Way

The $25 Million that was placed on the table for the head of Zarqawi will never be paid, though it should. It’s just the American way. We toss a carrot on a stick out for the chase, and then pull it back once it’s time to pay up. I heard a General make a statement yesterday saying that “no one told us exactly where he would be at a precise time, so we don’t feel that the information was that helpful.” Give me a break. We’ve been allegedly hunting this guy for years, someone tells us to follow his spiritual advisor because there will soon be a meeting, two days later Zarqawi is dead, and this information was not helpful? Okay, whatever. Now, one could argue that since the information came from inside the Zarqawi network, that should the money be paid it would simply be funneled back into the fund of the terrorists. That could be true, but it does not justify claiming that the information was not worthwhile, nor that it does not justify a payment. Besides, who did they expect to know where Zarqawi would be if not someone connected with his network? An owner of a produce market in downtown Baghdad? I hardly think so. I would now not hold my breath waiting for someone to give up Bin-Laden simply for the reward money. We have proven that we will not pay it, making it meaningless.

This is very similar to an event that forever soured me on “the American way” of doing business, way back in the early 80’s. We cut a deal with Iran to release our hostages, and once the hostages were released we backed out of our end of the bargain. I have ranted about that before, and will not do so again. But, I believe that this was the beginning of the end of the idea that America’s “word is our bond.”

Hearts and Minds

In summary, Boosh claims that a major factor in winning his phony “war on terror” is to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. While most of us know that this can never be done, you damn sure can’t do it if you refuse to pay the reward that you offered for the head of the man who you claim to be one of the top two terrorists in the world. Regardless of the affiliation, regardless of where the money may end up. We are spending billions of dollars per week fighting this insane war, so what’s $25 million? Besides, we could actually use it to our advantage. Give the money to someone, hope he/she is a terrorist, and track where the money goes. Could it possibly lead to other al-Qaeda leaders? Could we perhaps actually then use our black ops people to do something that might help track the real enemy? Investigation 101 anybody?

We just don’t get it, which is why we will fail to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi’s or anyone else in the Middle East or around the world. We can’t even win the hearts and minds of the majority of our own people. Like the Grandparent who gives the child $200 for Christmas and then wants to tell him how to spend it, we just simply can’t help ourselves. It’s the “new American way.” We simply screw whoever we can out of whatever we can whenever we can. We do this more in an effort to reinforce the illusion to ourselves that we are smarter than anyone else than for any other reason. We are the world's greatest con-men. Our moral authority is gone, in fact, our morality as a nation in virtually every phase of our existence has left the building.

And that, my friends, is why we have lost the respect of everyone in the world. A respect that took 200 years to build, and a respect that will never come back. We would have to earn that, and we aren't into earning anything anymore. We simply take in "the new America."

Cyclone