Critical Mass

By Cody Beckman

Knowing I am not usually around a radio or the internet while I work, my mother asked me last night if I'd heard any news yesterday. When I replied that I had not, she said with some jubilation, “We got him. We got Zarqawi.” To my retort that the media had reported similar stories several times earlier, all obviously falsely, she said that Zarqawi’s body had been positively identified, and this time by American officials.

I went home and checked the Drudge Report, my main source of headline news, and sure enough, Mr. Drudge had the word “Celebration” splashed across the top of the screen in bright red letters, as he is prone to do with important stories. Again, I have heard news like this before, but after reading a few of the stories I became convinced that the United States had in fact found and stopped one of its most important terror targets. Reactions vary across the spectrum, but the general feeling is one of joy and relief, a sense of “We got one of them who murdered many of us.”

This happiness over the loss of someone’s life put me off somewhat at first; I was taken aback by my own internal celebration at the sight of the headlines. I believe every human life has value, and that none should be ended unduly. The more I contemplated the issue, however, the more I realized there is some reason to rejoice at news such as the above, because Zarqawi was getting his due. God gives every person the chance to make life choices. The choices we make are important in both how we live out our own personal lives and in how others react to us. The difference between the death penalty and abortion is that a murder chooses to kill and thus chooses to accept the consequences of his actions, whereas an unborn baby never gets the chance. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was certainly a murderer, and in his life of destruction, he earned punishment. Now he has received his due.

Moreover, Zarqawi represents a system that is bent on the destruction of innocent peoples and the domination of world powers in the name of a lie. He, like bin Laden, and like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and others before is certainly responsible for his own actions, and is also responsible for the actions that he directs.

In the end, I realized in recognizing Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death, we were not so much celebrating death as rejoicing in life: life spared from the clutches of this man bent on destroying it, life freed from his part of the system of destruction. As the critics recognize, there will probably be a reaction from the terrorist forces because of Zarqawi’s death, and we must deal with whatever they throw at us. It will certainly be less than what has come before in this man’s name.