al-Zarqawi Dead UPDATED

The story is everywhere and being written on by better writers than I, so I’ll just link around, adding to the roundup throughout the day, so check back if you like – after directing you to a few must-reads, I’ll look for some unusual reaction.

One thing, before linking to the Zarqawi stories: DO scroll down over at Captains Quarters, because you don’t want to miss his postings on the two terrorists arrested at Heathrow and oh yes, HELLO…another key text has been translated in those Iraqi Documents in which the press is so incredibly disinterested, and…September 2002: Iraq Buried Chemical Weapons Near Fallujah. Those two stories deserve wide dissemination and they will sadly be buried under the excellent Zarqawi news.

Not convinced he was such a bad guy? This might help.

Michelle Malkin notes that the WH Press Corps did not cover themselves in glory this morning. It’s been a while since they have. Years.

I like Ed Morrissey and his take on it:

The elimination of Zarqawi and his henchmen will kneecap the foreign insurgency. Although the network will still exist, the loss of leadership and political connections will guarantee its rapid decline. What little command and control existed will disappear, and the funding channels that Zarqawi controlled with go with them. Cells will operate without any coordination at all, a problem already with the successes the Coalition and Iraq have achieved against the network. They will act all at once in response to this attack, but then should run out of gas quickly.

Ed has a great round-up, as has Michelle Malkin, and Pajamas Media

Glenn Reynolds questions the timing. :-) His excellent big roundup is here. Media Blog is covering the coverage. Gateway Pundit will – of course – be the place you go back to again and again throughout the day. Hugh Hewitt notes that within mere moments of the news breaking the press was already going negative on Bush.

Centcom has put up videotape of the strike. Counterterrorism blog says the demise of Zarqawi is courtesy of Task Force 145> (Thanks, Sally).

A happy Tony Blair calls this a big blow to AlQaeda. “Today’s announcement was very good news because a blow against al-Qaida in Iraq was a blow against al-Qaida everywhere,” Blair told Cabinet members. The prime minister also praised U.S. and coalition troops for their work in Iraq and its new democratically elected government.”

Note the UK press is as bad as the US press in insisting on slathering as many negatives as possible into a positive news story. Ah, well. In other UK news, some have noticed a rainbow of fire. I know my birth mother would read that and think, “signs in the sky…”

On the other side… Richard Clarke is the first Clintonite to officially downplay the importance of this event. There will be others, unfortunately. As usual, the wrong party is in the WH, so this cannot actually be a big story that leads to better things.

DJ Drummond has Zarqawi’s Probate.

Dr Sanity notes that for some in the blogosphere no good news is ever really good because America, Bush and the soldiers suck, and stuff. In fact, she’s gone and made a whole round-up of reactions from the left!.

John Stephenson notes that the father of Nicholas Berg is unhappy, and reminds that Berg was prospecting commercial work at the time of his horrible death. Berg’s father is calling for the impeachment of President Bush. Bob at Confederate Yankee finds the Democrats finding this a reason to retreat and Texas Rainmaker is looking out for signs of mental trouble on the left. Jimmie Bise who is enthusiastic enough for many, many unethusiastic lefties has a nice piece up – it almost launches itself off the screen at you! :-)

Visually, Alexandra at All Things Beautiful has a great graphic up. Gina Cobb has some pictures to remind us. Tough to look at pictures at SFPH – sometimes we need to see what we would rather not.

Jeanette and Laura Lee Donoho have more as well.

Some are wondering if this death has anything to do this story. I kinda doubt it, but who knows? Oil Prices fell on the announcement. I imagine the market will have a good day.

Meanwhile I have a round-up of other news you might be missing while we gorge on this story! :-)