The administration can pull the “Mission Accomplished” banner back out and hang it again (4 years later). Looks like we got the big guy in Iraq:
The interior ministry in Iraq says it has received intelligence that the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed.
Abu Ayyub al-Masri, believed to be an Egyptian, has led the group since June 2006 when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is blamed for or has claimed some of the bloodiest insurgent attacks in Iraq since 2003.
I am sure the GOP is looking at ways of celebrating this. We will hear how this is some sort of proof that the surge is working. The warbloggers will break open the Champaign while branding any blog that dare speaks the reality as “traitors” or “terrorist sympathizers”. Since I am used to being branded with those schoolyard names, I will go ahead and get it started.
Within four days of Zarqawi dying last year, Masri was filling his shoes. If Masri is truly dead, then you can bet there is already a new leader making the plans. The problem is that this new leader might have new ideas and new plans that will change the current dynamic of everything. In other words, this could turn around on us. With Masri we saw a rise in chlorine bombs. With a new mystery leader, who knows what kind of nasty ideas he has in his mind. We will loose weeks just trying to figure out who is running things now, while he is personalizing (for lack of a better term) his plans for Iraq.
Don’t get me wrong – I am not upset that this slime is dead. I am just saying it will change things in Iraq, and those changes will not be for the better. As matter of fact, things could get a lot worse now.