THE MARKUP
The NYT's Zarqawi Coverage [Nathan Goulding]
The NYT is often criticized on this page, so it is with pleasure that I report that today's coverage of Zarqawi is surprisingly good. Instead of preaching—or, better, quoting anonymous sources—the NYT sticks to what it should: reporting.
They have this excellent piece, which reports on the intelligence and the inside source that led to the eventual airstrike and raid on Zarqawi's safehouse. And then there's this editorial, titled "Death of a Terrorist," which takes a level-headed and realistic approach to the Iraq War as well as the implications of Zarqawi's death.
It is good news for Washington, and even better news for Iraq, that the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was finally killed on Wednesday by an American airstrike. The group that Mr. Zarqawi led, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, organized and carried out some of the most beastly bombings and beheadings of recent years.
But as Americans discovered earlier, after Saddam Hussein's two sons were killed and the Iraqi dictator himself was arrested, it will take far more than the elimination of a handful of iconic leaders to stem the tide of the Iraqi insurgency and reverse the country's alarming slide into civil war.
There's some debate on the ever-looming civil war, but Zarqawi was, indeed, a terrorist; it is good news we killed him; and it will take more than his death to secure Iraq. After yesterday's "media relations spokesperson Zarqawi" article in the Times, it's good to find today's reporting to be a little better.
06/09 12:13 PM
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