Say Anything Blog

The ego defenses were in high gear yesterday, as cognitive dissonance set in among many on the left in the wake of Abu Musab Zarqawi's death.

A virtual squirmfest of conspiracy-mongering, armchair quarterbacking and classic moobat dimthink ensued. A sight to behold.

1. It will make things worse in Iraq! It takes a special kind of stupid to make this argument. Are you surprised that ABC makes the argument also?

2. Zarqawi was an 'invented menace.' Or a strawman. Take your pick.

3. Killing Zarqawi doesn't change anything. It doesn't change anything? Well, we'll never know will we, after all the guy is now dead. That is like saying that killing this guy changed nothing during World War II. Right on cue, Jack Murtha said "I think we cannot win this." Take a bow, Jack.

4. I question the timing! You knew this one was coming. AllahPundit: "Send me any links you find of people questioning the timing, the stupider the better. Ten points if they tie it to Haditha, a thousand points if they tie it to the start of Yearly Kos." And sure enough, Democratic Rep. Pete Stark of California took the bait - "This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers. Iraq is still a mess -- get out."

5. Another guy will just take his place. " . . . most likely Abu Masri. Just like gangs and the mob, when one goes, another rises up." - TalkLeft

6. Okay, we can bring the troops home now! "Our troops have done their job in Iraq. " - John Kerry

7. Zarqawi was just small potatoes. "As terrorists go, he was what sportswriters might call a scrub." - Scott Thill

"There is no evidence of operational links between his Salafi Jihadis in Iraq and the real al-Qaeda; it was just a sort of branding that suited everyone, including the US. Official US spokesmen have all along over-estimated his importance. Leaders are significant and not always easily replaced. But Zarqawi has in my view has been less important than local Iraqi leaders and groups. I don't expect the guerrilla war to subside any time soon." - Juan Cole

"Zarqawi's importance to the tactical situation in Iraq has always been overstated, and I doubt he has any significance at all to the strategic situation." - Matthew Yglesias

8. Bush blew earlier chances to kill Zarqawi. "U.S. forces passed on taking him out three times." - Russell Shaw, citing this article by MSNBC, which claims: "long before the war the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out his terrorist operation and perhaps kill Zarqawi himself — but never pulled the trigger. In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide."

What a minute. You mean to tell me that al-Qaeda was in Iraq before the invasion, and they were cooking up WMDs? The devil you say!

9. He's not really dead. Or, he was already dead for some time, but spent a Weekend At Bernie's: "I can't help but wonder if al-Zarqawi wasn't killed some time ago and they just decided to announce it today and tell us he was killed in yesterday's raid." - TalkLeft (. . . again, which deserves some kind of award for hitting most of the above points all in one post).

10. Killing never solves anything. Michael Berg takes the extreme view over the death of his son Nick's murderer.

There are still more, such as "He deserved a trial, hot meals and cable t.v.," "his martydom will only create even more terrorists", "how many civilians died trying to kill this guy?"

Play along at home if you like!

Thanks to Hotline and Dr. Sanity for the links.

Crossposted from WILLisms.com