Interesting analogy, but as Gollum played upon deception as to his agenda, I wouldn't compare al-Zarqawi to him. His agenda was clear and did not rely on deception to achieve it.

Unless he was really, really good at deception so I didn't notice.

You are correct, I was thinking more along the lines of eliminating someone who may have lead you to a bigger fish, but that probably wouldn't have happened in this case.

Gonna try and sell me on some idea that this peice of filfth had any other purpose to fulfill other than the one he pursued with blood thirsty dediction?

Sorry - no.

My impression was that Zarqawi's true goal - or at least one of the major objectives - was sectarian warfare. That now appears well-established, and I don't know that his death will have much impact on that. However, he also appeared to love the media spotlight, and I'm not sure there's a ready replacement for the figurehead-everyone-recognizes role.

If this slows down the islamic terroists murdering innocent Iraquis and kidnapping of innocent reportrs, aid workers and truck drivers, all the better. If similar intelligence can finally help the military locate and obliterate Bin Laden, I'm all for it. That's what started this whole mess in the first place.

I'm unsure about that, but I get to ride alongside Aragorn.
:)

Don't you mean behind him?:D

Even better.
:D

I am not shedding any tears that he has passed but as to whether this improves the situation over there, I have a feeling that not much will change. I'd be more than happy to be proven wrong.

Today, the first day without him around, 37 have been killed in Iraq. Those people certainly aren't benefitting from this.

I actually expected violence to increase today and for the next few days.

My reasoning is that I would suspect there would be some intelligence they can get from the rubble, or at least associates of Zarqawi might believe that, and therefore any existing plans for attacks would be carried out as soon as possible to prevent them from being thwarted.