Oh Right...

It's time for a simple game of matching. See if you can guess who said the following things about the death of Al-Zarqawi. If you're good at identifying and deconstructing tropes, I bet you'll do just fine.

I commend our military forces for their success in targeting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The death of this ruthless terrorist, who led an insurgent campaign of brutal suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, is great news for the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people. It is also a testament to the professionalism and capability of the men and women in the U.S. military and the effectiveness of well-planned and targeted operations.

So who is this? It starts with congratulations though it's clearly setting up a "but." Whoever said this seems to want to make it clear that Zarqawi was a bad guy so as to not be left open to attacks from whatever corners might say something like, "see you hate America; you love terrorists and want to give them therapy." (Like anyone could really be that cynical or absolutely horrible). It kind of gives a back handed compliment to those in charge with that whole "well-planned and targeted operations" bit. Who do you think this could be?

This was a good week for the cause of freedom. On Wednesday night in Iraq, U.S. military forces killed the terrorist Zarqawi. The killing of Zarqawi is an important victory in the global war on terror. This Jordanian-born terrorist was the operational commander of al Qaida in Iraq. He led a campaign of car bombings, and kidnappings, and suicide attacks that has taken the lives of many American forces, international aid workers, and thousands of innocent Iraqis. Zarqawi had a long history of murder and bloodshed. Before September the 11th, 2001, he ran a camp in Afghanistan that trained terrorists -- until Coalition forces destroyed that camp. He fled to Iraq, where he received medical care and set up operations with terrorist associates.

Hmm... opening with reified values like freedom... mentioning September 11th and Al Qaeda... who does that... ? Connecting terrorism to prewar Iraq... who could this be?


This counts for my regular update on Democratic Wisconsin Senator, Russ Feingold... so that answers at least one of them.