If Bush hadn't decided to invade Iraq, Zarqawi probably would have lived out his life as your basic run-of-the-mill street thug. But Zarqawi was also an opportunist and America invading Iraq was his opportunity of a lifetime. We may never know how many other Muslims have become full-time full-fledged terrorists because of this ill-conceived illegal war but we'll undoubtedly be paying the price for Bush's decision for decades to come. I was particularly struck by this little goody in his press conference (though I had plenty to choose from):

The death of Zarqawi was very important for the people of Iraq. He was sowing incredible violence inside of Iraq. He promoted spectacular death. And by the way, he talked about human rights abuses, and we -- definitely need to be held to account. But the world needs to hold to account terrorists for civil rights abuses, too. The killing of innocent people to achieve a military objective is the cornerstone of al Qaeda's military strategy.

Excuse me, President Dumbass, and this may come as a big surprise to you, but most people in the world don't really have high expectations about terrorists respecting people's civil rights. Now these same people USED TO have some pretty lofty expectations about AMERICA respecting other people's civil rights but that was before you decided that civil rights (ours or anybody else's) were going to be yet another casualty in your war on terror.

And then there's that al Qaeda cornerstone you mentioned -- that bit about the killing of innocent people to achieve a military objective. Can we assume that AMERICA had a military objective when we invaded Iraq, Mr. President? Too bad none of the reporters had the balls to ask you how many innocent Iraqis have died as a direct result of us trying to achieve our military objective.

Is it just me or is the whole idea of George "Hijack & Torture" Bush lecturing anyone about civil rights abuses and the killing of innocent people laughable? Or maybe it would be laughable if it wasn't so damned tragic and so damned embarrassing.

As War Room astutely reported yesterday, the Bush administration prevented the military from going after Zarqawi in the leadup to the war, because they wanted to use him in their justification for the war by misleadingly saying that Zarqawi was a 'terrorist in Iraq', showing our need to invade to battle terrorism.

But that's inconsistent with today's report of his name being mentioned only once in the leadup to the war.

One mention is hardly using him for justifying the war, the way that Saddam was conflated with 9/11 and such.

It's nearly contradictory to cite his being used for propaganda yesterday, and citing 'only one mention' today.

There is no contradiction in maintaining that Zarqawi was used for propaganda in the run-up to the war while failing to make lots of uses of his name. After all, allowing him to stay in Iraq (in, mind you, an area of the country outside of Saddam's control), gave the administration the ability to refer to known terrorist training camps in Iraq. We had knowledge of such camps run by Zarqawi before the war, and we knew where they were. This meant that the administration could have ordered attacks to destroy these camps had they so desired. On the other hand, allowing them to persist gave the administration a tool for propaganda purposes. That Zarqawi's name was not often specifically used in referring to these camps does not negate the fact that he was being used for propaganda. This makes sense, as, back then, Zarqawi's name meant nothing to the American public, and referring to him by name would have had much effect. Now, however, with him having been in the news by name for three years, his name alone has propaganda value.

The killing of innocent people to gain military advantage in a war, he should know. Abu Ghraib, Hadita come to mind. And without the illegal war in Irak thousands would still be alive and there would be thousands fewer terrorists for whose deeds he is ultimately rersponsible. Well said Hmm , Hmm George.

On two separate occasions, before the Iraq war started, the military told Bush that al-Zarqawi's location had been pin-pointed and yet Bush did nothing. I keep hoping someone will ask Bush if he regrets this.