Zarqawi: One ofThe Living Dead

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose real name was Ahmad Fadhil Nazzal al-Khalayla, is dead. But, in a very real way, he has been that way for quite some time.

Starting life as a small-time criminal in the town of al zarqa, he embraced radical Islam while serving time in a Jordanian prison. After being released from prison in 1999, he traveled to Afghanistan to form links with Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zarqawi returned to Jordan after the soviets were defeated and soon found himself serving a seven year prison sentence for plotting the overthrow of the monarchy. It was his intention to establish an Islamic state, a caliphate, in Jordan. He fled Jordan soon after his release from prison, and was sentenced to death (in absentia) for plotting attacks against the American and Israeli tourists.

The rest of his story is well known. His activities with the insurgency in Iraq, and his provocative stance of pitting Iraqis against each other by bombing Mosques and encouraging civil war between Shi'ite and Suni, and kidnapping and beheading aid workers and other civilians had made him public enemy number one in Iraq.

Zarqawi was a man sentenced to death, hunted by governments and armies, who dealt in violence and death on a daily basis. He was, as most suicide martyrs, a walking dead man. This was brought home to me after reading an interview of some of his family members conducted shortly after his death.

His elder brother, Sayil al-Khalayla, had this to say: "We anticipated that he would be killed for a very long time," He said. "We expected that he would be martyred," He added, "We hope that he will join other martyrs in heaven."

Zarqawi's brother-in-law, Abu Qudama said: "We are not sad that he's dead.To the contrary, we're happy because he's a martyr and he's now in heaven."

But, while there is some cause for relief that Zarqawi has been eliminated, this does not mean that the end of the war in Iraq is any closer. The politicians, American and British, are gloating and celebrating the death of this terrorist the same way that J.Edgar Hoover celebrated the death of John Dillinger. Public enemy number one has been eliminated. But radical Islam is a global war and the death of one man, no matter his infamous notoriety, will not see the end of terrorism.

Far from eliminating the threat of terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have bred thousands of would-be Zarqawis and bin Ladens. They, like Zarqawi, hope for glory of martyrdom. They are indeed the living dead.

So any celebration of Zarqawi's demise should be tempered with the realization that the war goes on..and on..and on.