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| Iraq |
| An Unmourned Death, An Unspeakable Cause |
| 2006-06-15 |
| By Richard Brookhiser Death in war is rarely even dramatic in its circumstances. The sudden blast, here not there; lingering pain, too short to be taken home, but long enough to be agony. What nobility there is comes from the cause, the choice that the soldier has made. Few causes have been worse than that of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al QaedaÂ’s commander in Iraq. His goal was a society of command and control; his means were murder and chaos. He did not lead from the front. He never contemplated strapping on the martyrÂ’s bomb belt himself, or even engaging in a firefight. The famous video outtake of him having to be instructed in the use of the weapon he heroically posed with may have embarrassed him, but it accurately reflected his own program and vision of himself. The pudgy mastermind was not made to fight, even to murder; he intended to command, once the Americans and ordinary Iraqis were out of the way. But they did not get out of his way, and death came for the arch-bomber. |
| Posted by:ryuge |