Zarqawi's death

[Edella]

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death is being widely reported.Apparently his death was brought about by a US air strike that was ordered after a captured Zarqawi lieutenant disclosed Zarqawi's favorite hiding places.What difference if any will this make?Opinions?

[Mercedes Benzene]

Well, I think it will make those freaking Islamic Extremists a hell-of-a-lot madder at us (U.S.) and possible Britain too...
I think they will be planning an attack on us sometime soon as revenge...
you know those terrorist types.... everything is about them and thinking that God told them to kill all the democratic people....
psssshhh.

[Racoon]

Originally Posted by Edella

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death is being widely reported.Apparently his death was brought about by a US air strike that was ordered after a captured Zarqawi lieutenant disclosed Zarqawi's favorite hiding places.What difference if any will this make?Opinions?

Well, I think initial reports are saying they found him by tracking his spiritual advisor, with the help of the Jordanians.

as for Mercedes comments, these guys are already plenty mad and planning attacks...It may increase their desperation however.

There will be a new leader . but it should disrupt their flow for a while.

Hopefully this will encourage the Iraqi's to unite, since Zarqawi was promoting a strong Muslim division between the sects and seriously impeding the New Government..

Score one for the US Coalition side.

[infamous]

Originally Posted by Mercedes Benzene

I think they will be planning an attack on us sometime soon as revenge...

They are making every effort with those aims in mind anyway. The more of their organizers we take out, the better.................Infy

[Mercedes Benzene]

True, true.
But this will certainly hasten any ideas for future attacks. I already feel as if an attack will occur very shortly, especially since they just captured those terrorists in Canada. I swear, it seems that every day, things get scarier and scarier.
The other day, I was sitting in my room doing homework, and all of a sudden I hear these immensly loud sounds. I mean, no joke, I thought a plane was crashing in my back yard. I ran outside and saw 3 fighter jets zooming by at low altitude. Sooo I get super freaked out. I run to the tele, turn on CNN and it was just some dumbass who flew his plane into DC resetricted airspace....
It may not have been a real threat, but I thought for sure we were going to war.

[Qfwfq]

I don't think an air strike was necessary and I think it was a mistake.

Heck, they captured Saddam alive, didn't they? A criminal in jail is a far better result than one six feet under, far better effect, far better position, far better everything. Sheesh even John Wayne sometimes played as a sheriff that believed in Justice and wasn't just plain trigger-happy!

[Boerseun]

There's no point in killing any one leader - he will just create a void which will be filled soon enough by another guy. The cycle of violence and terror will not be changed, or even slowed down, by eliminating the leaders.

What should be done (in my personal opinion) would be an honest and objective attempt by the West to try and come to grips with the root causes, to try and understand what gave rise to this current conflict in the first place - and then treat the root cause. Chopping this snake's head off will only cause it to grow ten more.

[Mercedes Benzene]

I think they decided to use an airstrike simply because it was quick and easy... No task force had to be assembled this way. It was just open doors, bombs away! I think the U.S. wanted to get this guy off of their hands, and quick, considering he's the one responsible for so much of the contemporary world's terror.
Also, with Saddam, we more or less stumbled on to him in his hiding spot. In the case of Zarqawi, we KNEW where he was for sure, and even had him under surveillance.... and he definitely was not in a hole by himself.... he was in a concrete bunker with tens of terrorist dudes. It would have been extremely hard to get it, find him, kill his guards, and then capture him.
The alternative was 1000 pounds of explosives.... and that's what we did.

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by Mercedes Benzene

I think they decided to use an airstrike simply because it was quick and easy...

Exactly! The easy way out!

And how come Saddam was so underpriviledged compared to Al Zarqawi? He really believed there were no American tanks in Baghdad?

Boerseun is right, but unfortunately that isn't what Bush wants.

[sebbysteiny]

The cycle of violence and terror will not be changed

-Boersoen

This is one of the biggest misunderstandings of Islamic terror. Islamic terror feasts off fighting infidels and 'kuffas', 'the decendants of monkeys and pigs' and the 'enemies of allah'. There is no comprimise, and the life of one Muslim is not as important as the death of many infidels. Such 'Martyrs' then become hero's and people put their pictures on posters that parents belonging to that death cult hang up to motivate their children into death. Whilst we celebrate life, they celebrate death.

The 'cycle of violence' is this. They kill us until we respond. Then they continue killing us but try to blame our response for their latest attrocities for propaganda purposes so they can spread their idiology of hate. They will then talk about a cycle of violence as if the blame is equal when in fact their part of this 'cycle' takes very little or no provication whatsoever.

Talking about a 'cycle of violence' is falling into that trap whereby we allow ourselves to put at least part of the blame on us rather than entirely on them for having possibly the most abhorent political and religous idiology on the planet.

Examples: September 11th. Where was the prevocation there? The attacks on the USS Cole. Again, no provocation. Then, when America attacked Afghanistan, suddenly the jihadis started calling for a 'response' as if they were not planning attacks anyway. Then after Iraq, the jihadis changed their battle cry to 'defend Iraq' by killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and destroying the infrastructure that could make their country better.

In Israel, the suicide bombers hit the streets shortly after Arafat rejected and walked out of the peace process calling on the Jihadis to 'do what they do'. There were no checkpoints, roadblocks, security fences, killings or even any army presence whatsoever in the West bank. Result: two suicide bombings every week. Now that those measures are in place, the jihadis now blame the 'occupation' for these attacks. Further, when these groups lose a leader, they then promise 'retaliation' as if they were not planning new and ingenious ways to kill innocent people anyway.

I think it's important to know why they are hitting America in the first place. This is because America is considered the leader and most powerful of the free world. If they can destroy America, the entire free world would follow. Therefore every attack they do is an attack against everybody in the free world.

Al Quaeda were already opperating at 100% efforts to kill Iraqis and destroy democracies. Their cries for revenge are nothing more than a sign of weakness that their organisation was hurt.