I woke up early this morning to the news that Al-Zarqawi is dead. And I felt relieved. I did not feel "joyous" as one right wing-nut suggested that we should all feel. This is why.

Al-Zarqawi is dead. And it is very good that he is gone. He was a monster. He was a brilliant monster; he was an evil monster; but he was our monster.

We knew who he was, and where he was, and we chose to let him go, three times, before the War on the Iraqis, because we needed at least one link between Iraq and al-Qaida. That he was in the part of Iraq that we controlled was deemed not to matter. The Pentagon itself wanted to take him out all three times, and was prevented all three times by the pReznit's Office.

So his death is a victory of sorts. Likely he won't be replaced by anyone as brilliant or as evil. Still, wouldn't one have to ask if the blood of the seven hundred human beings estimated to have died at his hand after the pReznit refused to go get him for political reasons, is not that blood as much on our hands as on his?

Update: more on al-Zarqawi and GWB from Maha