Hitch Gives Zarqawi a Fitting Obituary

On Slate, Chris Hitchens has a brilliant analysis of the significance of al-Zarqawi's death. In short, he notes the foolishness of those who see him as less than significant, the importance that he may have had a rift with bin Laden, and the devastating effect to Iran that his death and the intelligence bonanza that accompanies it may have.

We give his closing, as a teaser:

If we had withdrawn from Iraq already, as the "peace" movement has been demanding, then one of the most revolting criminals of all time would have been able to claim that he forced us to do it. That would have catapulted Iraq into Stone Age collapse and instated a psychopathic killer as the greatest Muslim soldier since Saladin. As it is, the man is ignominiously dead and his dirty connections a lot closer to being fully exposed. This seems like a good day's work to me.