It's a Beautiful Morning...

All news outlets covering the story that Abu Musab al Zarqawi has been killed by US and coalition forces in Iraq. After hitting the safe house where he was holed up, the US pounced on 17 other target sites that they had been watching to learn more about his movements.

This sounds like a significant victory - both in public relations and on the ground. I'm curious as to how big a win it is, inasmuch as it has seemed for a little while that Zarqawi's effectiveness was suffering, and he was becoming an embarrassment to AQ worldwide. Still, I don't see how this can be seen as anything other than a big win. I would imagine we're likely to see an increase in violence in the next week or two, as Zarqawi's followers try to show that they remain strong. The test will come afterwards.

Second point - this comes a little while after Zarqawi was embarrassed by the video released by the US of him being unable to fire a Squad Automatic Weapon. Did that 'black eye' lead to him being 'ratted out?'

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