November 20, 2008
THE REACITON
A welcome bit of Iraq news
Battle-tested Iraq war veterans heaved sighs of relief.
Area politicians applauded.
And regular New Yorkers cheered - with some reservations - after the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the notoriously violent Iraq-based al-Qaida leader who has engaged in or ordered grisly beheadings and suicide bombings - and was dubbed U.S. forces' most perilous threat.
News of the death of the Jordanian-born operative credited with some of the bloodiest attacks on Iraqis and U.S. forces was welcomed by many as a sign of a reversal of fortune for the U.S. war effort in Iraq, a drive that polls show has fallen far out of favor with the public.
Related links
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Video of the airstrike (DOD)
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Abu Musab Zarqawi
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Audio Report
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Zarqawi Cartoon
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Bush announces Al-Zarqawi's death Audio
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Iraq terror leader al-Zarqawi killed
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Analysis: Attacks in Iraq will outlive al-Zarqawi
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How the U.S. found al-Zarqawi
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Past coverage of al-Zarqawi
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Radical killer with mythic status
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Recent coverage of Iraq
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Still can't find bin Laden
"It's really interesting because there's a pendulum shift," said Paul Rieckhoff, 30, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a National Guardsman from Manhattan who spent a year fighting in Iraq beginning in March 2003. "It's great news. He's a bad guy and an enemy of the United States. He's a high-value target that our military has been trying to get for some time."
Another veteran, Mike Zacchea, who finished fighting in Iraq last year after a one-year tour, agreed.
"I was very, very happy to hear about it," said Zacchea, 37, of Hicksville, a Marine who helped train Iraqi forces in Iraq's hottest zones. "It's the same as killing [Osama] bin Laden or capturing Saddam Hussein. This is a big deal."
It was a big deal to area politicians too, like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who said she hopes "that this will be a blow to the insurgency in Iraq and affords an opportunity for the new Iraqi government to build on this success and provide greater security and stability for the Iraqi people."
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said the death "weakened the aura of the terrorist leadership" while Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi weighed in, too, saying, "Hopefully, his demise will move us one step closer to bringing our troops home."
But others on Long Island streets were cautiously optimistic, wondering whether the death of al-Zarqawi is a cosmetic development or if the insurgency will continue unabated.
"I don't think it's going to change this global insurgency," said Mark Broxmeyer, 57, partner of Commack-based Fairfield Properties, and chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "Nothing will change, and now they'll just see him as a martyr," he said when interviewed in Mineola.
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