Why Al-Zarqawi’s death mattered
Bookworm on Jun 09 2006 at 11:32 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
If you want to buck the MSM trend and read an article detailing why Al-Zarqawi's death mattered, read this.
By the way, have you noticed how all the MSM reports (at least the ones I hear on NPR), make sure to add that, not only were Al-Zarqawi and his second in command taken out, but that a woman and child also died? Their deaths aren't newsworthy (if war news is understood to be something of tactical and strategic significance), but the MSM certainly finds them noteworthy. Hmmm. I wonder why?
As it is, I cannot mourn too greatly the woman's death. Unless she was kept shackled to Al-Zarqawi against her will (and we'll never know), one has to assume she was there voluntarily — and those who hang with targets of worldwide manhunts are likely to die with those targets. The child's death is a tragedy, since children cannot control their ill fortune in being controlled by adults who place them in danger. That individual tragedy, however, should not be allowed to offset the tremendous victory that was scored when our military killed a man responsible for the deaths, not just of one child, but of thousands of Iraqis, men, women and children alike.
UPDATE: You read, you learn. From Michael Ledeen:
One other very important factoid emerged from the accounts of the attack on Zarqawi: we killed two women in the same house. We did it deliberately, because they were his key intelligence officers. From which two lessons should be drawn. First, women get something approaching parity in the jihadist terror organizations, despite endless citations from the holy Koran demanding their subservience. These were not suicide bombers, of which we have seen several exemplars in the past; these were important components of the terror headquarters. And second, when our soldiers enter terrorists’ quarters and kill women in the ensuing firefight, remind yourself that it might have been entirely proper, since the women may have been terrorists themselves.
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5 Responses to “Why Al-Zarqawi’s death mattered”
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Two points.
People who know insurgency warfare know that everyone and anyone can be an enemy.
The so called multicultural liberals that favor equality between the sexes, don’t act like it when the turd hits the fan.
The Smith summary is excellent and certainly worthy of passing on to acquaintances.
It seems the MSM is working overtime to kill the importance of the raid. Gloom and doom colour every broadcast I’ve seen.
Powerline captures the spectacle of the MSM trying to making Zarqawi “a victim.”
Do the press have their limits? It seems not.
—excerpt ‘At this and other points in the press conference, Gen. Caldwell had the look, I thought, of a normal person who wonders whether he has been transported into a world of lunatics. It seemed that some of the reporters, at least, thought they were on to another “scandal”–Zarqawi murdered by U.S. troops! In cold blood, as Jack Murtha likes to say.’
—
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/014350.php
What Jg said, is one of the reasons why I favor an aggressive, offense based propaganda strategy. Ambush the media, obliterate them, divide and conquer. Strike first, so you aren’t standing around off-balanced when they strike you. As they are striking all of us right now.
You can’t change the past, but you can set traps now, for the media to fall into later in the future.
Ymarsakar has it right: The news war is a pivotal part of warfare, and we’re basically not fighting it.
When we do — paying Iraqi papers a few dollars in traditional baksheesh — our media blast the Pentagon and the Pentagon doesn’t even realize it needs to fight for its right to fight the war.
Z Man’s death is a propaganda coup for the Coalition. a morale booster for civs and military. But, it can be much better.