Iraqi Bloggers React to Zarqawi Death

Via Jessica McBride:

. . . a compilation of comments from Iraqi blogs about the killing of terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Some representative comments:

After I hang up, a flashback of images of people died in the terrorists attacks came to my mind. Um Bashar, whom we all miss, was among the pictures. She was all dressed in white smiling as if she was telling me. “I can rest now, B. tell Bashar that I am comfortable now.” Then she disappeared but the other images did not.

I remembered my mother’s cries and voice when I called her after a car bomb exploded in front of the school where she used to teach. I recalled the TV images of the burnt children and their parents in the middle of a huge flame.

The image of the collapsed apartment building and the pile of bodies I saw in a restaurant bombed by Zarqawi’s car bombs came among the other images that will never leave me rest even if I die.

Finally, he is dead. I couldn’t believe one day this pig will be killed. Finally, the brutal Zarqawi, whose bloody campaign of beheadings and suicide bombings made him the worst terrorist in the world, was killed. Finally the thousands of families and victims he killed will rest in peace.

And this:

I want to congratulate the valiant eagles of the American Air force and all the men of the U.S. Army, the Iraqi security forces and all those involved in executing this just punishment and for being the instrument of providential justice. Blessed be the wombs that bore you, and please accept this expression of gratitude and love from an ordinary Iraqi man. And as for you American people rest assured that our faith in victory has not shaken on single iota. I can only end with the words of our dear President Bush: “God Bless Iraq and May God continue to Bless America.”

And finally this:

I remember one of the times that had me really angry at these people. During the first Iraqi elections, January 2005, many Iraqis were ready to vote for the first time in their lives for the party they really wanted. But for Sunnis especially, this process became dangerous, as they were warned that they would be targeted and killed if they joined in this process. I remember the morning of the elections, seeing the fear in my neighbors’ eyes, as they sized up the situation before risking their lives and walking to the polling centers. I remember them coming home, all happy that they were still alive. I remember them washing their ink-marked fingers with bleach to remove the sign that they had voted. And I remember that many others of my neighbors, especially the women, stayed home from the polling centers, because there was no need to risk death for it. That was one of the many times I was angry at him and his forces.

Of course, people who have blogs in Iraq are hardly “representative” Iraqis.

But then, they are certainly more representative than the insurgents, or the Shiite militants, or the Sunnis who were privileged during the Saddam regime.

They are the sort of people who can play a constructive role in creating a democracy in that country. They are the people on whose side we should be.