Iraqi terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi lost another key aide this weekend with the death of Abu Azzam, the US confirmed last night. Abu Azzam died in an American raid on a Haditha safehouse:

A man believed to be al Qaeda's No. 2 operative in Iraq has been killed, a U.S. Defense Department official confirmed to CNN.

Abu Azzam was a "significant" figure in the al Qaeda network in Iraq, the official said. ...

Just last week, U.S. and Iraqi officials announced that two men described as top al Qaeda leaders in the northern city of Mosul were captured during a September 5 raid.

One of those captured in that raid was said to be responsible for supervising and directing the day-to-day operations of the group, and was responsible for numerous attacks against Iraqi security and coalition forces. Officials hailed the capture as a blow to al Qaeda's operation in northern Iraq.

A senior leader of the terrorist group was killed in a September 17 raid on a terrorist safehouse in the western city of Haditha, officials added.

The intelligence keeps getting better and better, and the noose grows ever tighter. Zarqawi may replace these positions as fast as we capture or kill the incumbents, but each time that happens he has to use people with less skill and experience as replacements. That means more mistakes, less communication with external units, both of which forces the terrorists to simplify strategy and tactics to remain successful on their missions.

Even capturing or killing Zarqawi will not end the insurgency. Another fanatic will rise to take his place. However, the continual losses by the nutcases and their increasing desperation will turn off the flow of recruits into the network. We have already seen that with the "drafting" of either unwitting or unwilling people to carry the suicide bombs in Iraq, and now we can add a new atrocity: killing schoolteachers. Terrorists murdered six teachers in Muwalha, south of Baghdad, by herding them into a room and shooting all of them.

They want to keep the children of Iraq ignorant and ill led, all the more to recruit them later on. Ignorance is their stock in trade, after all, just as with any other bigots and racists. This demonstrates the "plan" that the foreign terrorists have for the future of Iraq: a blighted, ignorant mass under the thumb of an autocratic caliphate that will cough up its children for suicide missions because they have no hope of any better life. The Iraqis have better plans for their children, and they know that the Americans do as well.

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