Tuesday, September 27, 2005

One Less Bad Guy in Wild West Iraq

Reuters reports that Abu Azzam, Al Qaida's number two in Iraq (notice that no one doubts that Al Qaida is in Iraq any more?) was killed this week by American forces. That's another bad guy dead in a shootout with the marshals.

Like the American Wild West, Iraq requires force for pacification. Bad guys will only restrain themselves when confronted with a credible threat, and future bad guys will not choose not to be bad guys if no threat exists.

Meanwhile, protesters say that we have no reason to be in Iraq and are getting nothing done while we're there. SWNID submits that killing bad guys is a very good and necessary thing that we are doing, as it leads to fewer, not more, bad guys in the future.

But don't expect this significant sign of progress to be widely reported. It doesn't fit the quagmire template.

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