Two Cheers for the Death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

Good riddance to that nasty, ugly bastard. Good riddance to the 7 aides that went down with him in an air-raid. Because with some of his lieutenants out of the way the group al-Zarqawi led, "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia", should have some difficulty in the short term reconstituting its leadership structure. However, as Juan Cole (and most MSM commenters have already noted this morning:

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.


In fact, given the controversial nature of Zarqawi's tactics among his fellow terrorists, his death may actually work in their favor in the longer term: they lose a problem and gain a Martyr (as has already been argued here).