EDITORIAL: Big Day in War on Terror: Al-Zarqawi is Dead; Iraq Government is Alive
By The Dallas Morning News
Jun. 9–There have been few moments that one could point to as marks of progress in stabilizing Iraq. This is a big one. In a matter of hours, two crucial obstacles have fallen, providing reason for cautious optimism:
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the embodiment of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is now dead, killed Wednesday in a U.S. airstrike in Baquba, only 40 miles from Baghdad.
And the Iraqi Parliament has broken a paralyzing deadlock over candidates for its Interior and Defense ministries.
The United States has been down the path of unrequited optimism before. The administration once thought that toppling Saddam Hussein would usher in peace and democracy. Instead, Mr. al-Zarqawi’s brand of foreign- engineered violence and the bold insurgencies of homegrown terrorists often have overshadowed breakthroughs such as the adoption of an Iraqi Constitution and free elections.
We were encouraged by the Bush administration’s measured response to this victory. The president and his spokesman also made clear that it was only a battle, not the war.
Viewed in combination, Mr. al-Zarqawi’s death and the agreement on the two ministry positions are significant. The Jordanian terrorist had become the fulcrum in the Iraqi resistance against the U.S. presence in Iraq. He relentlessly masterminded bombings that killed hundreds of Shiite Muslims and provoked their militias to retaliate with attacks on Sunni Muslims. He is alleged to have personally beheaded two British and American hostages in Internet videos and was an exporter of terrorism to Jordan and elsewhere. His violence had two main purposes — to fuel chaos in an attempt to hinder efforts to stabilize Iraq and to draw recruits for a global war against the United States.
While Mr. al-Zarqawi’s death won’t end the violence that grips Iraq, it removes its single most dangerous purveyor. His death also is a victory for international cooperation — in this case, the sharing of intelligence among Jordan, the Iraqi government and the United States that finally ended the manhunt.
Just as vital are the decisions on the final two government posts. With these leaders in place — the new interior minister is a Shiite and the new defense minister a Sunni — the country gets another chance to avoid civil war.
The compromise could well end the bitter disagreements that have erupted within Iraq’s government and left the two ministries, which control Iraq’s army and security services, unable to confront the insurgency or militia factions.
The United States holds no illusion that this is necessarily a turning point. Mr. al-Zarqawi used the Internet to recruit globally, and that’s not an easy network to disrupt. And there will be retaliatory violence from Mr. al-Zarqawi’s backers to demonstrate that they still have teeth.
That’s the cautionary tale. A wounded foe is often the most dangerous foe. This day marks a victory against terrorists, but the war is far from over.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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