Perhaps it's good that Abu is now a martyr, but I fear that more Jihadii's, perhaps not quite as capable or perhaps better, will step up to take his place. And that, more than anything else is the central issue: How to stop the killings and bring peace to the region.How about it, Shrub? Got any ideas?

Does the current administration truly believe that they can continue try and win a war by knocking down a figurehead here and there? Do they not realize that they have destabilized the whole region, and that things will only likely get worse and not better?

Take note: there are still no plans by the U.S. government to withdraw troops, and a draft will likely be necessary to continually maintain our current force.

Zarqawi was truly evil and he got what he deserved, but at what cost? A 3-year manhunt, half a billion dollars spent, an entire US military task force committed. All for the killing of one man. Capture was never considered -- he was targeted for elimination from Day 1.

The War on Terror must be won, but how? Our enemy is militant, radical Islam. How do we track down and eliminate those who are not deterred by fear of death or imprisonment, without creating more? If we fight, they get stronger. If we don't fight, they get stronger.

We can withdraw from Iraq, and watch it turn into another Somalia. We can capture or kill Bin Laden, but others will take his place. How do we stop them from coming here and repeating 9/11 after that? Withdraw from Planet Earth? Are brutal despots the only kind of leaders that can keep these people in check?

I doubt that al Zawqawi's death will be of any benefit in Iraq or elsewhere, but as we say here in Texas, he needed killin'.

Are you crazy?

This is desperation on the part of the terrorists. Abu Musa'ab Zarqawi was practically irreplacable. He was the operations manager in the field. He coordinated the fight. He had 25 years experience. They are not going to be able to replace him with some random suicide bombers. This is huge!

This is a great day. Denial of this leads to destruction. Do you want to let these people survive to kill another day? The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist. I am very secure with the President running this show. He has the guts to stand up to both the terrorists and the left wing nut cases who would capitulate.

Steve

Right, because forcing Hitler into hiding and his eventual suicide did nothing for the victory in WWII.

And do you realize that if we "openly plan" the removal of our troops that it will only aid the insurgents on planning their attacks. Sure, lets tell them when we're leaving!

wick,

What do you suggest - to not do anything? These terrorist people kill and have killed for no apparent reason other than their hatred for Americans and Jews alike. No Amount of inaction will lessen the terrorists, strikes on the innocent. One less figurehead may not end the war, but it is a step in the right direction. It will weaken the enemy.

This man cut off innocent American heads with a rusty cutlass. Good riddance.

If the US would have done this on September 12th or 13th, 2001, do you really think as many negative comments would have been made? I seriously doubt it. How quickly people forget. These radicals will continue to go on with their road side bombs, beheadings and killings. As long as there are so called "martyrs" like Zarqawi, then the US should continue the capture and distruction of his kind.

The fact that a high tech airstrike was needed to get Zarqawi would seem to indicate that the US will not be able to "hand over" the air support mission to the Iraqi Air Force for many, many years to come.
Iraq has no fighter planes and no precision bombing capability and only 500 personnel.
I wish someone would report on this
since President Bush never talks about the
Iraqi's lack of high tech weapons of the kind we rely on every day.

PRAISE ALLAH ! Zarqawi now sleeps with the pigs.

Yes, US policy should have been to let Zarqawi continue to sew the seeds of Sunni-Shia sectarian violence, killing at will innocent civilians with the intent of radicalizing ALL muslims everywhere and establish an Islamic Caliphate in its most extreme fascist form.

I hope that we dont kill Bin Laden and Zawahiri, that would just fan the flames of hatred more. We should have learned from WW2. Had we let Hitler just do his thing and live, we wouldnt have had to lose 200,000 American soldiers lives! When we killed Hitler, new Hitlers just popped up everywhere in more extreme form and threw us into the Dark Ages. Hey, give me more of what you guys are smoking, this is great.

We will continue to support our new friends, the iraqis, into the forseeable future. We do this for all of our allies and in some cases even our enemies. How is providing them with support in the form of air support and traning anyh different from sending troops to help in flood, earthquake or hurricane disasters.

Just because they don;t posses our technology doesn't mean very much, as long as they are our friends, which I hope is for a good long time.

The more that time goes on the more 1984plus this all seems. Is it really coincidence that Zarqawi's death fell on a significant day for the "new Iraqi" government? Coincidence that Zawahiri releases a video in which he praises Zarqawi the day after Zarqawi is killed? Coincidence that since Bush's poll numbers have really become worrisome for Republicans all of a sudden Bin Laden, Zawahiri, and Zarqawi have been releasing tapes and videos like they're going out of style? That over the years such tapes have always but always seemed to pop up at times when they could best bolster Bush or shift attention from serious unpleasantries in the news? It all seems quite odd to me.

"These terrorist people kill and have killed for no apparent reason other than their hatred for Americans and Jews alike. No Amount of inaction will lessen the terrorists, strikes on the innocent."

You speak as if we have been invaded and our humanity stolen. Indeed, these people hate Americans and Jews but only because we have stolen their land and killed their children. If we had treated Arabs, Iranians and other Middle Easterners with respect instead of backwards, primitive people, we could have actually created relationships with these countries. But because we want their oil, we destroy their society, pit them against each other, steal their land and then carpet-bomb whatever hovels we leave to them. Our Middle Eastern policy has been so audacious and brutal, we could spend the rest of the history of the United States repaying them and still never pay back the debt. They don't hate freedom, or your democracy; they do not care about you. These are real people whose lives have been destroyed by the US government and whose lives and suffering you ignore and belittle because they stand in the way of democracy. Wake up and realize America is not the greatest country in the world; she kills whatever comes in her way.

All this is, and all it will remain, is nothing more than an "oil" game. And if you can't see that, then shame on you.

As "evil" as Zarqawi may have been as some believe and repeatedly claim here, bear in mind that the number of people brutally killed ayt his caommand and/or cause is fractional compared to those Iraqis who had nothing to do with either 9/11 or Saddam than simply living in that country as the American bombs fell.
What exactly then makes Zarqawi the more "evil"? Proximity and the lack of lethal technnology?
Well, ya got him there. He couldn't drop a 500 lb. bomb from an undetectable height on his best day. We can and have for several years now.
Not that he wouldn't if he could have.
The facts are however; that both the overwhelming number of innocent victims and the real weapons of mass destruction since the beginning of the Iraq invasion have been directly accredited to the occupying forces. Not Zarqawi or the insurgency.
If that somehow makes Zarqawi more evil, what gauge is being used then to define evil??
And what means are being used to measure and portray us as saints and heros when the bulk of the atrocities to innocent people is (inadvertantly or otherwise) our doing?

I have two words: neutron bomb. Remember those? Lethal doses of short-term radiation with minimal damage to infrastructure. We could have the troops home, no more insurgent issues, and cheaper oil. Just rename the place Halliburtonstan, since they'd probably get the no-bid contract to sweep up the ashes and get the oil flowing.

I don't even know if this is where I should be posting this.... but it seems to be...

Does anyone remember learning in school, that a long time ago people would carry medicine in their wisdom teeth that would immediately kill them, if they ever got captured? I think it was during one of the WWs, I was just thinking... I wonder if our troops would be allowed to have something like that inserted, so they don't have to be brutally beaten to death?

Michael -

America is ther greatest country in the world. And, as tempting as it is to dismiss such a claim on some propogandic generality that you heard being shouted at a protest in front of the White House, do me a favor; man up and make a coherent argument, if you can.

"But because we want their oil, we destroy their society, pit them against each other, steal their land and then carpet-bomb whatever hovels we leave to them."

I'll take this one step at a time.

We want their oil - The fact of the matter is, if you're not good friends with the Bush administration you don't know what's going on. It wouldn't make sense for the U.S. to "take their oil," as if the motives are indeed what you are implying, then instability in the region should be what we are after, not thievery. But seriously, how can you pretend to begin to understand from your desk at home?

"pit them against each other" - It's their government's that are pitting them against themselves (broadly using the term "them" to descrive all non-Jewish arabs). Hamas and the respective leaders of government's like Liberia and Iran grow powerful by pitting groups against each other; it's their only source of authority and power because they don't do R&D, economic restructuring, social security, or anything half of a real government would do.

"steal their land" - I assume you're talking about the Palestinians here. I'm ambivalent on this one. Be willing to give that the bible is not an accurate source of empirical evidence and that it is impossible to tell which group of people was there first. And, give the Jewish people needed a homeland after 6 million of them were slaughtered by the Nazis. Give that the U.N. granted them the land that is now Israel. Israel has offered the Palestinians at some point everything they had asked form except for Jerusalem. If the government (if you can call it that) of the Palestinians, wanted peace, they would've accepted compromise. But, because their only source of power is derived from hatred, our present situation is the one that needs dealing with. In addition, who's the foreign world more likely to side with, a democratic people who has cultivated the land and grown an economy, or one that will do nothing with it? A question of pragmatism. I do note that the common person of Palestinian nationality has my sympathy, as do the common people of North Korea and Iran.

I'm exhausted, because I've written enough. Be open and seek the truth, not propoganda that fills the void of your ignorant and predisposed arguments. Veritas.

All I know is that the world has become a very unstable place. All for the sake of oil. It doesnt matter how the this war on terror is packaged, its all about the oil.

This is why Bin Laden will never be captured. You capture OBL and all of a sudden the War on Terror comes to an end. Not really what the Bush administration want.

I enjoy thinking of how the Muslim terrorists are suffering in hell. It was their choice. Their "Allah" is a pimp. The true God has punished them eternally.

How pathetic these so called martyrs are, to think that by killing themselves they will go to paradise. Have they had their brains removed are is it simply brain washing. Dead is dead. They are some form od hybrids whose parents mated with pigs.