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June 9, 2006 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, affectionately called “the slaughtering sheik” by his followers, finally ran out of luck this week. Tipped off to his presence at a secret meeting, US forces dispatched a fighter jet to send him back to Allah. And, depending on your media outlet of choice, the 500lb gift cards we airmailed to al-Qaida’s mastermind in Iraq represented either a huge victory that could turn the tide or a sad mistake that will only continue the cycle of violence. Jerry Springer, former ringmaster of pugnacious, incestuous lesbians turned Air America pundit, discussed the latter view on his radio show Thursday. Other publications sounded a similar tone, with “yes, but” and “now what?” comments being the order of the day. The New York Times cautioned, “As Americans discovered earlier, it will take far more than the elimination of iconic leaders to stem the tide of the Iraqi insurgency and reverse the country's slide into civil war.” Perhaps the part about eliminating iconic leaders is true, but then again Iraq has been “sliding into civil war” for the last three years, according to The Times. (Keep repeating the same prediction long enough and you’ve got a good chance of being right at some point.) Further to the left, the statements and opinions got outright bizarre. Michael Berg, whose son was beheaded in Iraq by Zarqawi himself, said, “restorative justice, such as being forced to work in a hospital where maimed children are treated, could have made al-Zarqawi a decent human being.” Restorative justice? That may work, but in limited situations – say, Scrooge, for example. That’s a guy who was due for some serious restorative justice. Zarqawi’s crimes, of course, went far beyond stiffing an employee over holiday time and a few lumps of heating coal. It’s as if Berg believes that a visit from the Ghost of Beheaded Civilian Contractors Past could have brought a blubbering Zarqawi to his repentant knees (“I want to live!”). Berg also seems to ignore the fact that a criminal has to actually be caught first before being forced to do anything. Zarqawi, to his credit, had an escape record that only Houdini could appreciate, once jumping out of a truck with allied forces in hot pursuit. Only in the mind of the far left does a homicidal misanthrope instantly appear in an orange jumpsuit, contrite and ready to dismantle IED’s along the highway and plant begonias in their place. Perhaps to nobody’s surprise, Mr. Berg equates the president with the terrorists: “George Bush is more of a terrorist than Zarqawi is,” Berg said. “Zarqawi is attributed to the deaths of a couple hundred people, including my son. George Bush is responsible for 150,000 deaths and another one every 12 minutes.” I’m not sure what method Berg uses for his scorecard, or where he gets his figures, but it deserves some scrutiny: if a jihadist with dreams of 99 virgins in his head detonates a Toyota in a Baghdad shopping mall, the resulting fatalities can hardly be laid at Bush’s feet. Indeed, it seems that no statement, no matter how off the wall, could ever damage Berg’s standing with the media. He could say, “I blame George Bush for today’s thunderstorms and the high price of a Starbuck’s latte” and it wouldn’t make a difference. Matt Lauer would still stick a microphone in Berg’s face the next time NBC needed a grieving father-type to opine about Abu Ghraib. They all have it wrong. Any way you slice it, Zarqawi’s death, while not a clear turning point, has to be a plus. Let’s not forget that one of Zarqawi’s own people dropped the dime on him: even if his shoes are filled, the new slaughtering sheik will have to keep looking over his shoulder. Paranoid and unable to trust his inner circle, any successor will be drastically less effective at centralized planning. Zarqawi was also an important instigator of sectarian violence, encouraging Sunni militia to do neighborly things like stuffing decapitated heads in fruit boxes. For his part, President Bush was correct to be more reserved with the news - no “mission accomplished” banners this time. He’s learned his lesson there and there is still work to be done. On the flip side, Berg, the editors at The Times, Jerry Springer, and their ilk should at least have the intellectual honesty to admit that Zarqawi’s death, while not a game breaker, was at the very least sliver of good news for a nation that desperately needed it. ------------ About Matthew Bastian: Recovering socialst, part-time drummer, long-suffering Brewers fan, and all-around beach hound, Mr. Bastian lives in central New Jersey. Email Matthew Bastian: mbastian19@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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