It probably wasn’t really a gift from the sociopath al-Zarqawi. Maybe it was a gift from Yahweh/ Jehovah allowing a little pleasure on the part of those who suffered so dreadfully at the hands of the petty criminal who grew up to fashion himself into the sadistic leader of terrorism - for a moment in time.

It seems that al-Zarqawi lived long enough to know not only that he was dying, but to know who had done him in.

It may be the only decent thing he ever did in his life.

We know this from the reports of the Soldiers who were there.

AP

As he lay dying, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi could barely speak, and he struggled and tried to get away after Iraqi police put him on a stretcher in the ruins of his hideout.

But American forces recognized his face, and knew they had the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.

[snip]

“He mumbled something, but it was indistinguishable and it was very short,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Friday of the Jordanian-born terrorist’s last words.

Iraqi police pulled him from the flattened home and placed him on a makeshift stretcher. U.S. troops arrived, saw that al-Zarqawi was conscious, and tried to provide medical treatment, the spokesman said.

“He obviously had some kind of visual recognition of who they were because he attempted to roll off the stretcher, as I am told, and get away, realizing it was the U.S. military,” Caldwell told Pentagon reporters via videoconference from Baghdad.

Al-Zarqawi “attempted to, sort of, turn away off the stretcher,” he said. “Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he’d received from this airstrike.”

We also know it from the photos of the deceased al-Zarqawi. He lived long enough to bleed excessively, for there to be brusing and to have significant swelling.

There is some satisfaction in that. The idea of him having a quick, sudden and painless death was more than a little disappointing.

When he seemed aware of the American troops he made a pathetic attempt to escape. Could he have been seeing his maker instead? He mumbled something, it could have been a curse or a prayer. Whatever the case, none of it saved him.

So he went to his reward. And the irreverant treatment of the news of his demise is the least he deserves.

It defies belief that there are those who bemoan his death and were spinning conspiracy theories within minutes of the news hitting the airways.

Many are trying to spin this victory into a defeat to use to their own political advantage. The reaction of the left leaves little doubt that they can not be trusted with the security of the nation.

It is even more astounding that the father of Nicholas Berg views al-Zarqawi’s death as tragic. Berg blames Bush for his sons death rather the the man who sawed his head off slowly with a dull knife. al-Zarqawi sawed Berg’s neck from the back and Nicholas’ screams only stopped when the knife finally cut through his vocal cords.

How someone can grow into adulthood and remain that naive is beyond my understanding.

We only know the tip of the iceberg of the pain and suffering al-Zarqawi inflicted. Headless bodies and body-less heads have been unearthed throughout the areas al-Zarqawi has been; men, women and children.

In the end, the least al-Zarqawi could do, was die slowly and painfully, be terrified, and be aware that American soldiers were carrying him away.

In the end, al-Zarqawi tried to get away. He didn’t want to die. A luxury he didn’t afford his numerous victims, the kids he sent out as suicide bombers or the bound civilians whose heads he cut off.

In the end, he died a coward.

Game, set, match.

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linked to: Outside the Beltway, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Stop the ACLU, Adam’s Blog, Is It Just Me?, Passionate America, Uncooperative Blogger, Obligatory Anecdotes, The Dumb Ox, 7 Deadly Sins, Free Constitution, Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself