Zarqawi snuffed

Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, al-qaeda's chief in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike. This is a great day. USA Today story here.

I've read and seen a lot of responses to the terrorist's death, including a few strange ones:

+ Fox News brought in a Christian priest to make people feel guilty. "We should not be gloating over the death of another," he intoned. Nonsense.

+ Allies were upbeat, with Bush, Blair, and Howard giving guarded, positive statements. Bush said it's an opportunity for the Iraqi government to turn the tide. Poland and Italy also had positive responses.

+ Nick Berg's pacifist father seemed sad about Zarqawi's death. Getting sad and fearful rather than getting angry is the typical liberal response. The guy is "sad for (Zarqawi's) family."

+ A family member of another dismembered U.S. citizen had this response: "My initial thoughts are that the world has rid itself of a very evil person - if a person at all. He's a specimen, that's what he is," Bigley told the AP. "I hope they catch the others ASAP." He also hoped that Zarqawi would "rot in hell."

+ John Kerry's statement included something about radicals hijacking religion. (Sigh.) It's more of the same garbage we saw during his failed presidential campaign.

+ The BBC and Reuters managed to publish stories without calling Zarqawi a terrorist. That's difficult to do, and probably cannot occur accidentally. Even The Turdian got it right.

+ CNN is talking about the stock market, while MSNBC is telling me about TiVo favorites from last night. Fox News has decided to cover Zarqawi in-depth.

+ The worst is this compilation of comments from liberal blogs. Via LGF. The classic "but" pattern is found in nearly every one of these posts. A few sentences are devoted to saying it's a good thing Zarqawi is gone, "but"... Then they go on to bash Bush, the war, righties, etc., etc. How did these people come to hate the U.S. so much? (hint: Vietnam hippy influence)