From the Jaws of Near-Defeat

It remains to be seen, of course, what effect the killing of Zarqawi will mean for the future of Iraq. The insurgency, alas, is more than him; but he was a critical, central part of the Jihadist element that has wrought some of the most appalling violence. This then cannot be a bad thing on the ground. And it is a simply transformative moment in terms of morale. This man has murdered and tortured and ravaged his way through the Middle East, most devastatingly in Iraq where his campaign of savagery and mayhem has helped undermine the extremely fragile underpinnings of a future normal society. In a culture where strength is respected, his resilience helped sustain the morale of the nihilist, Jihadist and Sunni insurgencies. If Maliki can use the momentum of this victory against evil to fill the last key security posts in his cabinet, then perhaps we can begin to reverse the hideous slide toward anarchy we have been witnessing.

These are still hopes. But sometimes wars are won by hope, even in the darkest of times. As I wrote a few months back, "the certainty of some today that we have failed is as dubious as the callow triumphalism of yesterday. War is always, in the end, a matter of flexibility and will. And sometimes the darkest days are inevitable - even necessary - before the sky ultimately clears."

The temptation to despair, especially given the ineptness of the administration's policies, has been great lately. Now it lifts a little, as one source of enormous evil is finally removed. It will be a particular boost to the coalition troops, whose endurance in an unimaginably tense and brutalizing mission is humbling to watch. The only response to this, as it was when Saddam was captured, is joy. As the Israelis say: Know hope.