Rumsfeld actually had the nerve this morning to refer to al-Zarqawi as one of Qaeda’s top 3 senior members. And that he had provided safe haven for al Qaeda to operate in Iraq…

But, of course, before Iraq, al-Zarqawi was just one of many terrorist leaders around the globe. It’s not clear that he had any substantive relationship with bin Laden before the chaos and lawlessness that ensued after the U.S. invasion. And the chaos we created is what allowed al-Zarqawi and al Qaeda to operate within this “safe haven.”

And now, with al-Zarqawi’s death, the likely leadership vacuum will help create a half-dozen more al-Zarqawis.

Feh.