Breaking News: Zarqawi is Still Dead

If there is any doubt that the insurgency is alive and well with the killing of al-Zarqawi, yesterday's beheading's should give pause for thought.

By the way, Its a good thing that there be a formal autopsy of al-Zarqawi. There seems to be a lot of (no surprise) conspiracy theorists who believe he wasn't killed after all or it that occurred at an earlier time. These are probably the same people who insist that no plane flew into the Pentagon on September 11th. Although, I'll admit that the timing was particularly curious. It came at the same time the Haditha scandal was exploding in the headlines. I won't put it past this lying President. Here is one conspiracy theory:

"It is sincerely a corporate media circus, a multi-dimensional propaganda effort designed to convince the public al-Zarqawi was indeed alive and then killed by our fearless soldiers in Iraq. As we know, al-Zarqawi was killed some time ago, prior to the neocon invasion of Iraq, and his image was subsequently adopted by the Pentagon, refashioned, and trotted out by Colin Powell at the United Nations. "

How about some more:

"In yet another amazing coincidence, the announcement of the death of Zarqawi or somebody just like him came just as Prime Minister Maliki was finally submitting his candidates for the long-disputed posts of defense and interior ministers, which then sailed through parliament after months of deadlock. The fortuitous death also came after perhaps the worst week of bad PR the Bush Administration has endured during the entire war, with an outpouring of stories alleging a number of horrific atrocities committed by U.S. troops in recent months. "

There are legitimate questions:

"Chief among them was how Mr. Zarqawi, the terrorist leader killed Wednesday in the airstrike, could have survived for even a few minutes after the attack, as American officers say he did, when everything else around him was obliterated. Concrete blocks, walls, a fence, tin cans, palm trees, a washing machine: everything at the Hibhib scene was shredded or blown to pieces."

Why Zarqawi's death might not matter:

"Despite written pleas from bin Laden's deputy to change his tactics, Zarqawi alienated allies in the Iraqi insurgency as well as Arab public opinion by killing hundreds of Muslims with suicide bombings. Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, repeatedly attacked Shiite shrines and leaders in a bid to fuel an Iraqi civil war, instead of primarily fighting the U.S. military and its partners....As a result, counterterrorism officials and analysts said, Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq had become increasingly isolated and marginalized in the past year."

"'I don't believe al-Qaeda in Iraq will die as a result of the death of Zarqawi,' said Mustafa Alani, a terrorism analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "Al-Qaeda headquarters will now have more influence on the Iraqi branch. At least, I think they'll be in a far better position than before.'"

"Nawaf Obaid, director of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, said Zarqawi's network had already been eclipsed in size and strength by other groups of foreign fighters in Iraq. He said units led by Egyptian, Saudi and Algerian commanders posed a much more serious military threat than al-Qaeda in Iraq, although much less is known about how their operations are organized. The strongest, he said, are North African groups in Iraq composed largely of veterans of the civil war in Algeria."

Al-Zarqawi is dead but his legacy will continue. His network trained hundreds of terrorists some of whom might be headed to a neighborhood near you. And let's not forget that al Qaeda has promised retaliation for the killing of al-Zarqawi.

With the advent of ultrasound now new and sinister uses of abortion as a way of selecting the gender of a child.

Hurricane season is here and its only a matter of time before a major storm hits the U.S. We will see how prepared for the destruction that will come. Given the lack of concern lately, don't be surprised by the devastation that will come.

The reports of the return of the Taliban have become increasingly common. Now even U.S. forces are saying the unthinkable:

"One international security official in Kandahar, who has several years of experience in Afghanistan and asked not to be named because of the nature of his information, said members of American and Canadian Special Forces units had told him that they were 'not winning against the Taliban.'"

The U.S. has decided to respond to the increased resistance from the Taliban by turning over the fighting to NATO. Figure that one out.