The breaking news all over the world right now is the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, along with six of his associates. Here are some links to news stories: FoxNews.com, CNN.com, Air Force Link, Stars & Stripes, The White House, CENTCOM,and the US Army; there are tons of blogs out there covering this, too numerous to mention.
It remains to be seen what the fallout in Iraq will be. Many of us hope that this will help turn the tide in Iraq and help the Iraqi police and security forces get a grip on the violence. I harbor a small fear that this will strengthen Shi’ite militias like the Jayesh al Mehdi (Muqtada al Sadr’s private army) at the expense of the central government. It will take time to determine the overarching effects.
I’d like to make a final point that a couple bro’s in the mighty Viper took out the terrorist mastermind (with some help from special forces and likely a JTAC).
In almost-related news, the stock market seems to be continuing its bear run. As painful as this can be to my portfolio, perhaps this is one of the best indicators that whatever the life-cycle of the international terrorist may amount to, it doesn’t have the capacity to affect us so much after all if we don’t worry about it so much.
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Update: Here’s a link to Cox and Forkum’s cartoon on the subject.