Ding, dong, Al-Zarqawi's dead...

And I couldn't be happier about it. Anyone who knows me realizes that I've never been what you'd call a fan of the Iraq war, but this counts as some real progress in my book. Not only will this (hopefully) reduce the insurgency there, it is a tangible victory in the battle of us vs. Al Qaeda.

That being said, we still have a long road ahead of us. The insurgents in Iraq are not going to disappear overnight, even with him out of the picture. CNN's Jeff Greenfield quotes an unnamed Jordanian intelligence officer who had earlier said, "if Zarqawi is captured or killed tomorrow, the Iraqi insurgency will go on." Even though that's not an assessment I particularly like, it's one that I tend to agree with. The real question here is how the insurgency will respond. Will Zarqawi's death provoke heightened fanaticism and an increased wave of violence? Or will this help to crush their morale?

Regardless of what may happen, I can say two things with certainty. First, Al-Qaeda has lost an important leader. Second, the world is a better place without him. This was a man who was directly and indirectly responsible for the killings of countless innocent men, women, and children. He plotted with saboteurs and homicide bombers. I don't use the word "suicide" here because that implies the intent to kill only oneself. These bombers want to kill as many others as they can, because the twisted brand of Islam they learned from Zarqawi and others like him tells them that they will receive a reward in heaven. Despite what the radical Islamists might say, he is not a martyr, nor are any of the others like him. I think that Paul Bigley, whose brother, Kenneth, was beheaded by Zarqawi, put it best: "...he can rot in hell, because that's where he is. He's not in paradise, that's for sure." Paul and the families of all Zarqawi's victims can take comfort in that. Matter of fact, I think I can, too.