Break out the champagne and cigars - US forces finally ‘terminated’ Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday in Iraq with a couple of bombs dropped from Planes - News channels anchors are smiling - it’s time to Celebrate.. Or is it?
“Those who disrupt the course of life, like al-Zarqawi, will have a tragic end … whenever there is a new al-Zarqawi, we will kill him.”
- Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appears to have been a extreme fanatic and certainly an evil man. But let us all not get too caught up in our media fueled celebrations - after all, more people died today in a war that has killed tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people. And with official statements being issued like above, we’re certainly no closer to peace.
Don’t get me wrong - it appears that negotiations with fanatics generally don’t work - but let’s not put forth absolute extermination as the only road to ‘peace’ - because that is absolutely a mirror image of what these fanatics are professing. And aren’t we supposed to be the good guys? And how is it peace when you’ve simply wiped out your enemies?
And shame on all of us for not standing up and saying ‘this is wrong’. Because it is.