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June 08, 2006

Good News for Iraq

I suppose there will be some who read yesterday's missive regarding my assessment that I should not have supported the Iraq war and this morning's news of the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the appointment of the ministers of the interior, defense, and state for national security and get a little chuckle at my timing. Personally, if my admitting error can miraculously cause world events to transpire to try to prove me wrong, I'll take that deal any time. But I'm not convinced that the good news this morning is nearly sufficient to demonstrate that I was in error about by being in error. The belief that we should not have begun the Iraq war does not have to lead to the belief that we are doomed to failure, nor that we should not do what we can to make the best of the situation now that we are in it. Today's double-whammy provides an excellent opportunity to do just that.

The death of al-Zarqawi, while hardly the lynchpin that will bring down the insurgency, is good news for several reasons. Obviously the death of a man who made it his business to spread death and terror as far as he could is something if not to be celebrated then at least to be welcomed. Killing al-Zarqawi also offers the possibility that we may dissuade a few of those currently on the fence about joining the terrorist's cause into choosing other career options. While there are those among the terrorists who truly seek death, they are not nearly as numerous as those who want to strike out at someone without themselves dying. As long as al-Zarqawi was able to evade Iraqi and Coalition forces, he provided a role model for this kind of terrorist: someone infamous for his ability to strike at enemies of jihad while always surviving to fight another day. That is the kind of myth that inspires followers. With al-Zarqawi now dead, he can only be used to inspire the much smaller number of jihadists who are eager to die for their cause. That is no small thing, and if al-Zarqawi's death inspires a small number of Muslims to reconsider their willingness to go to Iraq and join the insurgency, it will be an even greater thing. (Killing Osama bin Laden would be of even greater worth in this respect, as that would demonstrate very effectively that becoming a terrorist is a death sentence, precisely the message we should be sending.)

More important than the death of al-Zarqawi is the finalization of the Iraqi government. If we're going to get out of Iraq, something I'd prefer to see sooner rather than later, Iraq needs to be ready to run the show itself. To do that it has to have a functioning government, something it has lacked to one degree or another since the invasion. With the appointment of ministers to the ministries responsible for the armed forces, police, and other Iraqi security apparatuses, they have taken a huge step in that direction. It is now the U.S.'s duty to treat that government as a separate, sovereign state that has the right to do as it pleases in Iraq. Our role from this day forward needs to be one of gradually declining support as Iraqi security forces are trained sufficiently to protect Iraqis from the insurgency and to eventually eliminate the insurgency as an effective force. Those are important jobs, but they are Iraqi jobs. Now that the Iraqis have a duly elected government in place, it's time to let them get to work.