Choice quotes:
"This is a message to all those who use violence killing and devastation to disrupt life in Iraq to rethink within themselves before it is too late," he added. - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
"Zaraqawi's death will not in itself end the violence in Iraq." - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
"Those who disrupt the course of life, like al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end," al-Maliki said. He also warned those who would follow the militant's lead that "whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him."
UPDATE (June 9th):
Via Appletree, a quote from Juan Cole:
There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don’t expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon.
6 comments:
My guess is that a current militant leader had him ratted out. All the news suggests the insurgency is a domestic and sectarian affair now, if not a civil war. What place could a foreign Islamist would-be tyrant have in that? None but on top. So he had to be eliminated, I imagine many an ambitious militant reasoned
Aah, aint that somethin special! Now on, since the source of violence in Iraq has been removed, it's going to be peache n' cream.
Agreed. How often can one actually say that a bombing or beheading or other attack is directly related to al-Zarqawi? "Al Qaeda" carries a kind of rhetorical packaging function for the domestic US audience. But the reality on the ground suggests that there an awful lot of people who have nothing to do with al Qaeda, al-Zarqawi, or the "global war on terrorism." Many in Iraq say they have nothing to do with al Qaeda and want them out, while at the same time saying they fully support the insurgency. This could be another case of the administration exaggerating a threat for rhetorical political purposes to the point where the admin itself believes what it says.
Regardless, all accounts say that there is no hierarchy to insurgency in Iraq, so Zarqawi's death is once again mostly a boon for domestic politics rather than a serious change in Iraq.
At least there's the fittingness that there never was a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and now again there isn't.
Nice point, MT. Always good with the obvious but overlooked, aren't you?
Must be my intellect is so near-sighted that I see little else.
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