"[T]he death ... of one of the most accomplished mass murderers in the modern history of terrorism" (h/t HH) is easily one of the most feel-good news stories in recent memory:
BAGHDAD — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda chieftain who led a campaign of murder, mayhem and beheadings that made him Iraq's most-wanted man, died in the rubble of a home leveled by two 500-pound bombs, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.
This bodes well for Iraq:
The elimination of Zarqawi and his henchmen will kneecap the foreign insurgency. Although the network will still exist, the loss of leadership and political connections will guarantee its rapid decline. What little command and control existed will disappear, and the funding channels that Zarqawi controlled with go with them. Cells will operate without any coordination at all, a problem already with the successes the Coalition and Iraq have achieved against the network. They will act all at once in response to this attack, but then should run out of gas quickly.
The world is appreciably improved with Zarqawi's overdue demise.
UPDATE:
Zarqawi croaked on the stretcher. Good.
"He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a news conference.
His last request was for a ham sandwich.