Zarqawi's End

An American reporter recently asked a Baghdad man what he was still doing in Iraq. This Baghdadi came from a well-to-do family, and was vulnerable to many of the capital's multiplying threats: random terror, sectarian violence, and the targeted criminal kidnappings intended to elicit ransoms. Why not leave?

The Baghdadi's answer was straightforward and heartfelt. "I prefer to stay in my country," he said simply. "Eventually, it will improve. It has to."

It improved today. Zarqawi is dead, Iraqi women are ululating in the shy, face-covering manner of my country, and Iraqi men are boisterously firing celebratory shots in the air.

Zarqawi was killed by U.S. Special Forces with the help of Iraqis. I was especially interested in the role played by the Sunni tribes in Anbar, where Zarqawi had been holed up while directing his campaign of random slaughter of Shiite men, women, and children. Although certain Western poseurs have been announcing some imaginary surge in "grass-roots" support for Zarqawi among Iraqi Sunnis, the fact is that the Anbar
tribes were disgusted by the murder of countless Iraqi civilians, and united against him.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a press conference today that the American military had been following Zarqawi "very closely" in recent weeks. Zarqawi had been vulnerable ever since he had lost his refuge in Anbar, he said. "He had been forced out of Anbar" after Sunnis there "joined hands with their Iraqi brothers," Mr. Zebari said.


Iraq improved today for another reason as well: The new Maliki government finally filled its vacant cabinet posts. The new interior minister is Abdul Qader Obeidi, Jawad Bulani is the new interior minister and Shirwan Waili is the new national security minister. Obeidi had been a general in Saddam’s army but got into trouble for opposing the invasion of Kuwait. Bulani was in the air force. And Waili, a Dawa party member, is a former army officer.

Iraq improved today, though true peace is obviously still far off. There are already reports of more deaths at the hands of terrorists who are now killing only for the sake of murder. Zarqawi's death is another setback for a campaign that is only about death. The Zarqawi movement has failed to achieve any of its goals. Obviously, it has failed to stop the (often painful) development of Iraqi democratic institutions. Yes, there has been much sectarian violence, more than enough to satisfy those vultures who have been circling what they hope is Iraq's corpse. But that violence was far from what Zarqawi's band of killers sought to foment. Indeed, the last time we heard from Zarqawi, in an audiotape released this month, he had been reduced to pleading for an all-out civil war, ordering Iraq's Sunnis to kill Shiites. But it's Zarqawi who is dead. Iraq lives. As the Baghdadi man said from his heart, "It has to."