How do you know that?
Whether Zarqawi’s death will be trival in it’s consequences is something we will have to wait and see. If someone claims to know the answers — believe me, they don’t. The Iraqi themselves were involved to killing Zarqawi – how will that play out? Will this bring more credit to the Iraqi forces. Zarqawi’s plans for civil war — will that scheme be prosecuted with the same vigor as before? Can it be? Is his death “trival”?? Hell if I know.
Who knows? Not you, not me, and not anyone else outside of those who have intimate knowledge of the situation. As I’ve already said, I doubt a reasonable person will claim that his death doesn’t make a short term difference in morale – and morale is a substantial part of the battle. However, since this isn’t an organization that believes in public disclosure, I’m not willing to go as far as most on the board and almost assert the fact that ‘yes, there will be some lasting affect that matters’ or ‘no, never, nada.’ Anybody that does is fooling themselves, not me.
I don’t know what the effects of Zarqawi’s death will have on the long term psychology of the war. Never said that – never even implied it. Now, if I were a betting man, I’d think it’s not going to have any long term effect all else being equal. That said, it doesn’t remove the fact that this news has to be a boost to morale, both military and civilian ---- and it certainly doesn’t remove the possibility that a different al Quida leadership might decide that car bombing Iraqi civilians isn’t getting the job done – or that civil war is no longer on the agenda. Who’s the next new beheading star? Whose face will we all recognize next? Who will be his advisors? Again — Who knows? Point is - anyone that claims that this does or does not change anything long term is really just blowing smoke out of their backside.
then it is meaningless” demonstrates the panic some of you feel at any success in the war on terror.