Zarqawi Dead?

There are disputed reports out of Iraq that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may have been killed in Iraq on Sunday. If true, this would represent an important victory in the "War on Terrorism" (sorry, I just can't force myself to adopt and write "War on Terror"). It's not irrelevant to point out, though, that such an important step might have been achieved and a lot of subsequent bloodshed avoided, if Bush's National Security Council had not several times squelched Pentagon plans to kill or capture Zarqawi long before the invasion of Iraq. It has been suggested that the plans were spiked because it was more politically useful to have Zarqawi free in Iraq, albeit in an area uncontrolled by Saddam, than to kill or capture him because the Bush Administration could use an active Zarqawi to draw a link between Iraq and al Qaeda as they made their case for war.

Thanks to our most benevolent ruler, the King of Zembla for one of the links.