ZARQAWI DEAD!

I've been trying to post this all morning but blogger has been down (undoubtedly as a side-effect of everyone trying to comment on this good news). Here's the story from Reuters:

U.S. warplanes killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader in Iraq blamed for bombings, beheadings and assassinations, in a strike which President George W. Bush said on Thursday had delivered justice.

In one of the most significant developments in Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday in a joint U-S.-Iraqi operation helped by tip-offs from Iraqis and Jordanian intelligence.

Here is the video of the bombing (not terribly interesting, IMHO).

Of course, the caveats have already begun:
Zarqawi leaves gap but insurgency will outlive him
Zarqawi's death a relief, but not cure, for Bush

Fine. Look, no one expects this to end the insurgency over night. But, to those who are already trying to minimize the effect of this victory I have only one thing to say: you took a shower this morning, knowing full well that more dirt would accumulate in the coming day. Killing Zarqawi is like taking a long, hot shower after a several days of heavy work. We have more work to do, but for the moment lets enjoy the smell of the soap and the feeling of being temporarily clean.


NOTE: Vinnie at the Jawa Report links to this CNN story, noting that Zarqawi was betrayed by members of his own al Qaeda group. Encouraging.

UPDATE: I guess Blogger went down for unrelated reasons. (Via: Althouse)