People are fighting over Iraq’s soul. Zaraqawi didn’t care about Iraq’s soul – he saw it as unimportant, he wanted the entire world on a platter, and he wanted to own all of our souls. Same base goal as Osama bin Laden.
“Zarqawi didn’t have a vision for what a future Iraq should look like that was about Iraq,†Bensahel said. “Iraq was a player in a broader global struggle and that’s not something that either the Sunni or the Shia communities inside Iraq see themselves as. They are concerned about the future of their own country.”
The unrest in Iraq can be framed many ways. The Shia/Sunni rift is almost a millenium old, and inside Iraq, it is like a wound that is being picked at. How many times can you let the healing process start only to rip the scab off? That’s bad for the healing process. Then there are the Salafis aka Wahabists – those loony tune religious fanaticists who want to see the Eastern Hemisphere, and eventually the Western one as well, under the dominion of an Islamic caliphate. And underlying it all is man’s base desire to wield power and control other men.
Zarqawi wielded his power like an out of control fool. He guided his ship right into the center of a hurricane and smashed himself on the rocks. He is dead. Good riddance. Few of us want to cruise through life with a madman at the helm.
Perhaps his demise will make others within Iraq take a second look at how they are using the resources available to them. Power has be be used wisely for the benefit of everyone. In the long run Iraqis will benefit from his death, because their lives have gained value from the passing of the monster who cared not one whit who or what he destroyed in his quest to achieve his own mad dreams.