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...of self congratulatory back-slapping on the part of the Bush administration.  They got the big kahuna of Iraq terrorism.

    But one thing I'm wondering about...they knew where he was...they knew there were other people there (including, as it turned out, a pregnant woman)...why didn't they just helicopter in their special force troops and arrest Zarqawi?  He might have ultimately  pointed them to some of the others making IEDs...and he wouldn't be a "martyr".

    What was done sounds a lot like a cold-blooded assasination...just like the terrorists do, including the killing of innocent people.  I think the reason it was done that way is that they learned their lesson with Hussein...arrests lead to trials and trials lead to uncomfortable questioning of accepted "truths" and an exposition of the other side of the story.  Better to just silence our enemies permanently.

    But, God, that sure isn't any American way I ever heard of.  If we'd done that in Germany, there would have been no Nuremburg trials, only dead Nazis...and I think the world learned a lot more from the trials than it would have had the Americans simply killed Hitler's henchmen.  

-Vince, Newport

You know these guys are too elusive to capture. I had rather the guy that stumbled on Saddam had shot him -then risk his later escaping or being set free due to whatever. Kinda like you might wish that we had listened in on a few more cell phone calls after a nuke takes out a large port, millions of people dead, and the world economy is trashed into a severe depression.

-Billy, Wichita

You make a really good point. I was too caught up in feelings of righteous justice to think of it.
 When Nick Berg was beheaded, I was dumb enough to look for the video online and what's worse, I found it. Watching that immediately went on my lifetime list of things I wish I hadn't done. When I saw the picture of Zarqawi's dead face yesterday, I was gleeful. I thought, "You got it a lot quicker and nicer than you did it to others, you SOB." But you're right; that's not our way. That's why we're better than they are. Or at least should be.
You're way too hung up on the a-bomb. That's part of the Bushit you're still buying hook, line and sinker. Atomic bombs are harder to come by than you seem to think. I've had the pleasure of several extended conversations with a Pulitzer Prize winning historian whose specialty is the atomic bomb, and he sat me straight on that. Plutonium is very difficult to acquire. It's also almost impossible to handle safely without the resources of national laboratories. I know it makes a great fear tactic for the evening news or the administration to convince you that every two-bit terrorist who ever held a rifle has a pocketful of the stuff, but it's simply not true. And even if they did have it, making an atomic bomb is quite a bit more complicated than putting together a crude ammonium nitrate fertilizer bomb.
 As long as these guys have you that scared, they've got you by the short-and-curlys. We need to worry less about the fantasy attacks and more about the real ones that are being committed against the Constitution and our civil liberties in the name of our safety.

-Robert, TN

Speaking of Nick Berg---his father had some interesting stuff to say about the whole thing yesterday---I don't know if I would be so wise if it were my kid who had been beheaded...I won't copy and paste because it's pretty long but you can read it by clicking here...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/08/berg.interview/index.html

Personally, I think the timing of this is political...part of the campaign for elections in November...you've now got your gay-bashing, your flag-burning issues out there and now, just to get those good old boy juices going, a picture of a dead guy, whooped by our boys...hey, a triple-header in one week...expect more as the months go along...

Also, might want to read/watch the news really carefully in next couple of days...whenever the Bush administration gets some headline-stealing event going, they sneak in with something that would otherwise make the front page...and Friday is "take out the trash day" in press secretary parlance (I know because I watched West Wing) anyway...