Zarqawi is dead

Zarqawi is dead

...in an airstrike on a "terrorist safe house." And the obvious question (obvious to me, but your chances of hearing it in the corporate media are nil) is, "Even if this is true (and I assume it is), how many innocent Iraqis died in the many airstrikes on other alleged "safe houses" in previous attempts to kill Zarqawi (or his associates)?" Attempts like this one (20 dead). Or this one (40 dead). Or this one (11 dead). Or this one (40 dead). And those are just four that happened to be reported and that I wrote about.
Nor do I mean that lightly. We read today that there were 750 airstrikes in Afghanistan in May alone, and a "smaller number" in Iraq. How many of those were even reported in the press (through no fault of theirs in most cases, I'll add), nevertheless followed up on to determine the outcome? How many Iraqis and Afghans have died that we'll never even hear about?

This is what happens when you conduct war from the air based on a combination of "tips" and complete disregard for the civilian population. Occasionally, those tips will prove valid (as evidently in this case). More often than not, they won't. But don't worry. No one in the corporate media, and even few in the alternative media, will call it a "massacre" when innocent, defenseless people die without even seeing the faces of their attackers. After all, they weren't being targeted. It was just a "mistake."

Update: George Bush has this to say: "Coalition and Iraqi forces persevered through years of near misses and false leads, and they never gave up." "Near misses" of Zarqawi that is. The innocent civilians who were foolish enough to put their bodies in the way of the American bombs aimed at Zarqawi weren't so lucky.