Zarqawi

I have to say that it is a good thing that a man who believed in beheading and hotel bombings as tools of statecraft is now dead. Good riddance.

I'm sad that my second thought upon hearing the news was "If only we'd done it four years ago, when we had the chance."

In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide.

The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.

"Here we had targets, we had opportunities, we had a country willing to support casualties, or risk casualties after 9/11 and we still didn't do it," said Michael O'Hanlon, military analyst with the Brookings Institution.

There has never been an explanation for why that opportunity was missed, except that the administration didn't want to lose Zarqawi as a propaganda element in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. I hope there was more to it, then, and I'm glad that, whatever the reason, they went for it this time.

Just don't get me started on Rumsfeld's comment about Zarqawi having innocent blood on his hands.

"Arguably over the last several years, no single person on this planet has had the blood of more innocent men, women and children on his hands than Zarqawi," said Rumsfeld.