What A Great Idea !

According to Austin Bay, the new Iraqi Baathist "exit strategy" is to turn in Zarqawi. What a great idea!

The holdouts have always had two hole cards. The first is agreeing to quit fighting. This meant submitting to the democratic judicial process, but turning in your arms and asking for amnesty would lay the groundwork for a “deal with the prosecutor.”

The second card is turning in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda internationalists..Fact is, turning in Zarqawi would be the Baghdad equivalent of Monopoly’s “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for the lower-level holdouts who engineer it.

The Saddamites who turn in Zarqawi would give the Iraqi government a tactical military victory –the terrorist kingpin is off the streets– and a major political victory. Sunni Muslims turning in the Islamist terrorist would be another strategic coup for the United States.

And, as Tigerhawk notes in the comments of the above quoted post:

If Sunni insurgents were to turn al-Zarqawi in, the consequences for al Qaeda would be more ominous than if Zal-Zarqawi’s defeat occurred on the battlefield contending with American or Iraqi soldiers. This is because al Qaeda would know that it could not count on even passionately anti-American Sunni Muslims, who otherwise might be expected to form the core of al Qaeda’s further recruitment efforts. This realization would make it almost impossible for al Qaeda to build its organization, or even trust affiliated organizations. In addition, the example of Sunnis rejecting al Qaeda would presumably resonate within al Qaeda’s pool of prospective recruits – not only will al Qaeda not be able to trust those recruits, but those recruits will no longer be able to trust other Sunni Arabs that they had thought were sympathetic. Any former friend might become an enemy. This risk alone should diminish the willinesness of the young radicals to throw in their lot with al Qaeda.

This is obviously a great idea, and it seems to me that the handwriting is on the wall for the Islamofascist thugs--Al Qaeda and other groups. It is becoming pretty obvious that they are losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Middle East, as the domino effect of Iraqi empowerment sweeps across the area.

And really, is anyone surprised that given a choice in the matter, human beings would rather live in freedom than under tyranny and oppression--whether it is the tyranny of a Saddam or the oppression of the Taliban or Wahhibism? Bin Laden and Zarqawi are already old news. Soon they will join the legion of vanquished supervillains in whatever hell such monsters are consigned after death.

They will have earned it.