Another Win

On the heels of the capture of Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi -- al-Qaida in Iraq's No. 2, responsible for the detonation last February of the Shiite shrine in Samarra -- I have repeatedly heard that glib mantra, America is "in search of enemies." But this act of mercy confirms -- as it did with the mighty long-in-coming killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- that one doesn't have to search very far.\nI have long thought that though most isolationists might clear their throats with a condemnation of these deranged fanatics, not all of them were earnest when they did. (In this, they resembled those who were happy enough to admit that Saddam Hussein was "a bad guy" before articulating a long catalog of reasons why he wasn't so bad.)\nFor a while before al-Zarqawi was killed, it was a staple of the cut-and-run movement that his liberty was America's defeat. Once he was deprived of his liberty and life, it took scant time for many of the same people to allege that this was a pyrrhic victory: After all, hadn't the Americans made al-Zarqawi a martyr? \nWhat I find troubling is not how much this view conforms to reality -- which, even if it does, only provides more reason to scrub them away with the hottest lead in our arsenal -- but how little self-respect the underlying assumption contains: We're the narcissistic weaklings who possess the power but not the will to make martyrs out of an enemy with which we are at war.\nIt's hugely to the credit of America's armed forces that they stay engaged in fighting Iraq's enemies and our own. What is needed now is for the rest of us to stick to our guns, too. This resolution should be fortified by the fact that the blood-soaked bastards sewing such barbaric violence are, with each passing day, becoming blood-soaked -- literally -- as well. Consider what the jihadist fanatics seek, and tremble if you ever asked why they hate us. As long as this dim-witted point is raised, we will continue to operate under the delusion that al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's former chieftain, was created by fighting against him and deposing the despicable dictatorships (Mullah Omar's Taliban as well as Saddam Hussein's Baathists) that provided his sordid ilk safe harbor. \nThe stakes could hardly be higher. Ever since our enemies struck American soil, we've been engaged in a difficult war, in which our strength and seriousness are being put to the test. The fight will go on, but as the demise of al-Qaida's top brass reminds us, that test is being met. Defenders of the decision to join this fight were always open to the charge that we harbored a desire to search, find, engage and thrash our enemies. I, for one, have always been happy enough to concede this "point." But detractors -- those who condemn America for "picking fights" -- have opened themselves to a charge far worse than knowing that America's enemies need to be fought: They are unable to recognize an enemy even when they meet one.