Tracking Zarqawi

[GorTex6]

known scars

ie jailhouse tattoos. He is covered in them.

[Jedburgh]

Some immediate analysis from CSIS: Zarqawi's Death: Temporary "Victory" or Lasting Setback

There is no doubt that the Iraqi government and US forces in Iraq have scored a major political and propaganda victory by killing Abu Musab al Zarqawi. What is less clear that this victory will have a major impact over time. Its lasting importance depends on two things. The overall resilience of the insurgency in Iraq and how well the new Iraqi government can follow up with actions that a build a national consensus and defeat and undermine all the elements of the insurgency...

[GorTex6]

John Robb

This is excellent news, but it needs to be put into context (this is a brief for decision makers/analysts/thinkers and not motivation for the rank and file, so don't expect fluff -- as is often said, only the paranoid survive and every good commander I know understands this). Zarqawi is best categorized as violence capitalist, very similar to bin Laden, that supported and incubated guerrilla entrepreneurs of the new open source warfare model. In this role he was instigator of violence and not the leader of a vast hierarchical insurgency.

.................................

Col. Lang

Zarqawi was a bad and deluded man. He is dead. Good. Is it important? Not very much.

We Americans and our Israeli friends are obsessed with our own conception of what the mentality of people different from us ought to be. We can not deal with the reality of completely different and adversarial world views and mind sets. We account for systematic hostility toward adoption of our ways by attributing this "backwardness" to "bogey men" who from sheer evilness and perversity lead their fellows astray. Having done this, we then build them up in our minds and media as "supermen" whose elimination will end resistance to our "program" of "modernity."

Zarqawi was largely the creation of the collective American mind. In fact, he was the leader of less than 10% of the Iraqi insurgents. His people like to blow themselves up on "their way home." Will his pious madmen stop doing that now? We will see. Present thinking is that AQ in Iraq is now overwhelmingly Iraqi in its personnel.

The other 90% of the people in the Iraq insurgent groups are whatever they have always been.

[Tom Odom]

ie jailhouse tattoos. He is covered in them.

that would be he was covered in them past tense of course in his case being a good thing!

I agree with Pat Lang and I thank you for posting his comments:

Col. Lang

Quote:
Zarqawi was a bad and deluded man. He is dead. Good. Is it important? Not very much.

We Americans and our Israeli friends are obsessed with our own conception of what the mentality of people different from us ought to be. We can not deal with the reality of completely different and adversarial world views and mind sets. We account for systematic hostility toward adoption of our ways by attributing this "backwardness" to "bogey men" who from sheer evilness and perversity lead their fellows astray. Having done this, we then build them up in our minds and media as "supermen" whose elimination will end resistance to our "program" of "modernity."

Zarqawi was largely the creation of the collective American mind. In fact, he was the leader of less than 10% of the Iraqi insurgents. His people like to blow themselves up on "their way home." Will his pious madmen stop doing that now? We will see. Present thinking is that AQ in Iraq is now overwhelmingly Iraqi in its personnel.

The other 90% of the people in the Iraq insurgent groups are whatever they have always been.

Best
Tom

[SWJED]

... to MilBlog readers and a H/T to Eddie. Be sure to check out the rest of the forum and the Small Wars Journal's extensive resources to include the Reference Library and Online Magazine. The Daily News Links page provides a quick roundup of news, editorials, commentary, and blogs........ [ /shamelessplug ]

Message From Above



Cox and Forkum

[SWJED]

MG William Caldwell (USA) in Baghdad

Air Strike Video

Briefing Slides

[SWJED]

8 June Associated Press - Bin Laden Keeps Lower Profile Than Zarqawi.

Tracking down Osama bin Laden has proven tougher than getting to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi because the top al-Qaida leader does almost nothing to call attention to himself and is protected by a ring of far more faithful followers, intelligence experts said Thursday.

The mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks avoids using satellite phones and the Internet. He is likely holed up along the Pakistani-Afghan border in rugged, remote terrain, protected by loyal tribesmen.

Al-Zarqawi was killed Wednesday just 30 miles from the Iraqi capital. In late April, he was featured in a videotape firing a machine gun in the desert and talking to insurgents...

[Steve Blair]

I think one of the more important things about the Zarqawi strike is that a number of his 'advisors' were killed with him. I work around Air Force folks, and they were all carrying on like Hitler had been taken out in the first weeks of World War Two. They didn't seem to understand that when you're dealing with an insurgency or terrorist group there are always leaders waiting in the wings to take over from their fallen comrade(s). Getting a bunch of them at once is always more useful than just getting one. In my opinion, anyhow...