One Little, Two Little, Three Little Terrorists....

We got Zarqawi's #2, and now bin Laden's "Emir of Iraq" is in some deep #2 of a different kind:

A man believed to be al Qaeda's # 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.

Oppressed Syrians and Iranians won't see the light of liberation from Uncle Sam anytime soon, but at least those trying to reimpose Islamic tyranny on Iraq are being ground down to a fine sharia powder.

Something Ed Morrissey said in his follow up caught my eye, however:

The[ Islamists] 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.

In other words, they want to transform Iraq into Palestine. The only difference seems to be that we're not subsidizing the effort in Iraq.