Monday, June 12, 2006

Zarqawi: the incredible dying man

When I heard the news about Zarqawi's death on Friday, my first thought was, "What--not again?"

Al-Zarqawi has been killed more times than any man alive--uh, dead--um--well, never mind. Then I heard that they had identified him not just by the clothes on the body, and the appearence of the remains, and the fingerprints, but by DNA testing! Per the Washington Post, among others:
Zarqawi's lifeless body was immediately recognizable to those at the house, Caldwell said, and the discovery of tattoos and scars that he was known to have confirmed the identification. Fingerprint tests returned a 100 percent match, and results from DNA testing are expected within the next day or two, Caldwell said.
Tough guy, but hey, that's small potatoes when you consider how many times he's been killed before. Matt McCollow of Online Journal has unearthed all those other apparently greatly exaggerated reports of Zarqawi's death.

Amazing that there was anything left to check out after not just one, but two 500-pound bombs. Now they're saying that he lived for almost an hour after the bombing. And according to one witness, the US soldiers there behaved like base idiots:
Ahmed Mohammed, a local resident who said he rushed to the scene shortly after the bombs struck at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, said on Friday that he and others helped pull a bearded man he now believes was Zarqawi from the rubble.

When U.S. forces arrived, they took the man aside, Mohammed said, and kept asking him his name. When he did not respond, the soldiers kicked him and hit him, Mohammed said, until his nose began to bleed.

McCollow asks an insightful question:
Even the most credulous person would have to wonder: how many times can you kill someone before they're finally dead?

The more informed person however, might ask: How many times can you kill a dead man?

The answer to both questions could be: As long as people will believe it.

So, chumps, how many times are we going to believe? The next Zarqawi awaits!

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