The al-Zarqawi reaction

The divergence in the coverage of the death of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq is interesting in that, like any major happening in Iraq these days, it instantly becomes a political football for opposing political groups in the west to kick at each other.

The left's position, as exemplified by Robert Fisk's article in today's London Independent, is that Zarqawi was a Coalition creation; a person of very minor importance that government spin doctors have pumped up to create a 'boogeyman', responsible for all the problems in Iraq.

The Times, on the other hand, credits Zarqawi with "push(ing) Iraq to the very brink of civil war", obviously seeing Zarqawi as a major figure in the Iraqi insurgency.

While both the left and right in Europe and the US claim to have the best interests of the Iraqi people at heart, it is interesting that the views of the Iraqi people (as they can best be determined) appear to rarely coalesce with those of their supposed advocates on either side of the political spectrum on the west.

As an example, following the British army's assault on a Basra police station last year, to rescue captured soldiers being held there, the calls for an immediate British withdrawl from Iraq were immediate, and user comments on the BBC's "Have Your Say" website were particularly verciferous. However, BBC Monitoring, the Corporation's service that translates foreign language media, took the trouble to translate comments left by residents of Basra on BBCarabic.com. They were, almost universally, desperate for the British to stay. That however, is a sentiment that appears to be thinning on the ground in Iraq now.

The blogshphere has been no less divided over al-Zarqawi's death than the popular press. Message boards have been filling up with disbelief "I'll believe it when I see his body"; to outrage that "Bush and Blair have been parading a photograph of a dead man like a trophy"; to indeed, further outrage that Zarquai was killed at all and not captured and sent to trial.

The truth, as it often does, probably lies somewhere between the extremes. It is possible that Zarqawi was an insignificant figure that the coalition created for its own purposes; on the other hand, individual leaders, particularly in guerilla conflicts, can have a huge impact on the conflict. If either of these is right, the real truth is that we won't find out who is right for a long time.