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Z-Man Go Boom
Posted by Will Collier  ·   8 June 2006

As you've probably heard already, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been blown up real good by a U.S. air strike. I imagine the murderous son of a bitch was rather surprised when there weren't any virgins waiting for him at his final destination.

Needless to say, his passing leaves the world no poorer. Rest in pieces.

UPDATE: I've been told Maj. Gen. Caldwell just announced that after Zarqawi's death was confirmed, US and Iraqi forces raided 17 sites which had been under surveilance, resulting in an intelligence 'treasure trove.' Smash confirms; I'm assuming he saw the statement on TV. I'll put up a link when one's available.

UPDATE UPDATE: Here's the link. From the story:

Caldwell said they had been focusing on al-Rahman for about a month-and-a-half.

Once they confirmed al-Zarqawi's death, coalition forces launched 17 simultaneous raids in and around Baghdad.

Caldwell said the coalition identified the targets during the search, but did not raid them sooner because they were focused on al-Zarqawi.

"In those 17 raids last night, a tremendous amount of information and intelligence was collected and is presently being exploited and utilized for further use," he said. "I mean, it was a treasure trove; no question."

As far as the situation on the ground is concerned, these raids might be a bigger deal in the long term than planting the Z-Man. The coalition forces should now have a blueprint, complete with names and addresses, of the entire al-Qaeda operation in Iraq and possibly elsewhere.

It's a good day.

Comments

The only virgin he'll be seeing are his fellow pig-fucker suicide bombers and killers. Zarqawi is probably playing bitch for a bunch of virgins right now.

Posted by: aaron at June 8, 2006 05:24 AM

Yup, he blowed up real good!

Posted by: Pursuit at June 8, 2006 06:10 AM

Rest in pieces indeed.

Posted by: FL Mom at June 8, 2006 06:54 AM

Great news. I will drink a toast to his passing tonight.

Posted by: doug quarnstrom at June 8, 2006 09:08 AM

I dunno, Will. A place where dead, dismembered terrorists go to rape virgins for all eternity sounds pretty hellish to me.

Posted by: ArtD0dger at June 8, 2006 10:18 AM

BEST. HEADLINE. EVER.

Posted by: vanderleun at June 8, 2006 11:18 AM

I wonder which goat fucker is going to step up to the plate in his place...he may be thinking twice.

Memo to Hell: Let the rotting begin!

Three cheers for the good guys!!!

Posted by: Brad at June 8, 2006 12:18 PM

Every now and then our military manages to drag itself up from this unwinnable quagmire to f someone up spectacularly. Any time I see the grainy green video (aside from Paris Hilton's internet exploits) on Fox News, I know we gave somebody the business. The shocking part is that Z's body didn't totally disintegrate when the bombs hit.

Posted by: Rob at June 8, 2006 01:58 PM

Actually, Rob, 2 500lb bombs will flatten the hell out of your average house, but are hardly enough to 'disintegrate' everything inside it. might want to bone up on your ordnance.

As to The Late and Unlamented Z: good riddance. Burn in Hell, Z, Burn in Hell.

Posted by: John at June 8, 2006 02:03 PM

Ding. Dong. The witch is dead!

Posted by: drdisaia at June 8, 2006 04:33 PM

They weren't kidding around. One LG'd 500 pounder to do the hard work. A second to bounce the rubble and provide a little insurance. I hope he enjoy's his stay in Hell.

Posted by: Greg at June 8, 2006 06:39 PM

The 17 raids were perhaps not undertaken before this for fear we'd tip our hand to Zarqawi. Every mid-level Al-Quaida operations man has got to be wondering if this means that he is compromised, and his underlings have got to be thinking about that as well. This could be a very good intelligence haul indeed.
I suspect our friends on the left will tie themselves in knots trying to explain how it's wonderful news that this terrorist SOB is dead, but that his death contributes nothing, nothing at all, towards defeating the insurgency, which will inevitable succeed because of the BUSH LIES &tc.

Posted by: Terry at June 8, 2006 07:43 PM

Terry,

Honestly, I think the take from those raids, plus what ever is recovered from AMZ's not-so-safe house will be of even more lasting significance than his actual death. And contrary to many people's view that AMZ was unimportant and his death doesn't change anything, I couldn't disagree more. He was the guy who brought the money into the cause, and was a master at media manipulation. His loss is a big, big blow. It'll be awhile before we know what was taken in those raids, but I'm willing to specuate that the foriegn terrorists are about to enter in to a very rough period of time. Not a good day to be an Islamo-facist.

Posted by: Greg at June 8, 2006 09:05 PM

I've read a couple comments here and there that while this is a fantastic morale booster for the US and in Iraq, that it really won't accomplish anything.

I suppose that if a person believes that the constant negativity in the press (the "unwinnable quagmire") doesn't do any harm, then a victory and the attendant morale boosting celebrations don't do anything either.

Posted by: Julie (Synova) at June 8, 2006 10:02 PM

In light of the way Zark is being called a Bush creation intended to scare Americans who was never really all that bad, I think the headline below this makes an unfortunate juxtaposition.

Posted by: bgates at June 8, 2006 11:55 PM

...didn't even have to use my AK...

Posted by: El Propheto at June 9, 2006 02:11 AM

now, put him out and let nature - and the state of decomposition - take over. let his body swell up, turn black, and become a home to a mighty host of fly larvae (i.e. maggots). it will stink bad. throw some lime on it to kill the smell and let it continue to deteriorate until its a liquified mess that no one can come within twenty feet of.

richly deserved, in my view.

Posted by: boarwild at June 9, 2006 06:08 AM

May Zarqawi's 72 virgins all look like Yasser Arafat.

Posted by: chsw at June 9, 2006 06:49 AM

Apparently he was still alive when U.S. forces arrived to survey the damage, so the last thing he heard was not in fact the loud bang, but American voices gloating over having gotten the bastard.

Posted by: michael parker at June 9, 2006 07:28 AM

A nice follow on effect of nailing Z, his lieutenants, and other caught up in the raids is the experience drain. Neophyte AQ members are likely to be far less effective than the experienced guys.

Posted by: RPD at June 9, 2006 08:50 AM

Ref: the 500 lb bombs (most likely GBU-22). Two of course is good insurance, but the fuzing is also important. You probably want contact zero delay so the bomb is exploding just as it is coming through the roof. Have you seen the video? Notice the cross shape? That's because even explosions take the path of least resistance, the cross representing the corners of the house. The debris is scattered somewhat less in the directions of the main walls of the building. Me? I'd go contact on the first, and about 10' elevation on the second for maximum effect, but IMHO the second bomb was just to raise the PK and likely had identical fuzing, since there is always a chance of a bomb or fuze failure.

Posted by: Scout at June 9, 2006 09:44 AM

The I.Q. of the munitions mattered much less than the I.Q. of the locals in sizing up their future with Zarqawi and his friends compared with all the stupid blunders and sins of the mean old Chimp and his friends.

It is almost inconceivable that we could have pinpointed him for this sort of strike without specific and absolutely up-to-the-minute streams of reports provided by locals.

There is much comfort in seeing that all the bleating of the Western Alleged News Media were insufficient to convince them they're better off with bin Laden and Zarqawi than with the U.S. military.


Posted by: Davd March at June 9, 2006 02:02 PM

Blowed up! Blowed up reeeeal good! Thanks to Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok:

http://sctvguide.ca/programs/farmfilm.htm

Posted by: Don Bodell at June 9, 2006 03:32 PM

Iraq fills it's long stalled cabinet and the Z-man is ratted out within hours. The Sunni's have bailed on the Z-man and his killing within hours is a signal to the rest of the trash.

Posted by: Gary B at June 9, 2006 10:04 PM

Seeing as how the 500-pounder is the smallest bomb that will take an LGB unit, the only possible line I can think the pilot of the F-16 was thinking as he pickeled musta been,
"Say hello to my leeeeeetle friend". Hehe.

Posted by: Patrick vinson at June 10, 2006 03:52 AM

@David: I agree wholeheartedly, but... well... I just like talking about bombs.

Posted by: Scout at June 10, 2006 04:57 AM

Two things are good about this strike and the follow up: 1.Having survived the WW II I know that a 500# bomb puts fear of God into people. And when they don't know whether they are taargeted any given moment, that makes them edgy.
2. We held our raids until we hit the target. That makes everybody in the grouop nervous as well. Not only did we hit the boss, but we knew where many others were while they did not suspect that we knew.
One of the rules of war is that if you cannot kill the enemy, make them nervous.

Posted by: Roland at June 10, 2006 08:03 PM

The 17 raids were perhaps not undertaken before this for fear we'd tip our hand to Zarqawi.

Almost certainly, yep. Most likely they were sites that were known to be used by the bad guys, but the people watching were passing on the small fry in hopes of nailing one of the big fish.

Once Z-man was dead, there was no point in allowing them to exist any more, so they were rolled up.

All in all, that's a fairly competent operation. The question in my mind is this- are the reports that Z-man was ratted out by someone inside his organization accurate, or disinformation to make 'em even more paranoid?

Posted by: rosignol at June 13, 2006 07:39 AM

John, my post was tongue in cheek, as all of mine are. This is Vodkapundit, not Bombing Weekly. So you might want to bone up on this ordnance, dude.

Posted by: Rob at June 13, 2006 12:33 PM

"The question in my mind is this- are the reports that Z-man was ratted out by someone inside his organization accurate, or disinformation to make 'em even more paranoid?"

Yes.

Posted by: richard mcenroe at June 13, 2006 10:41 PM

What?? This _isn't_ Bombing Weekly?

Sorry for the disturbance.

Posted by: Scout at June 14, 2006 06:54 AM



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