Reuters reports sectarian chatter and mixed results

His removal may have a temporary effect, in terms of the technical sophistication [of insurgent operations] and therefore it is a blow for the insurgency, but, on the other hand, he has now become a martyr for the cause, so there will be others perhaps who are propelled by his loss to travel to Iraq to try to follow in his footsteps, so I think [his death] is a double-edged sword.*

You can't really get too excited about a victory like this -- the problem with our war is that there's no getting rid of terrorists through deployment in Iraq. It doesn't work that way. The factions that constitute the insurgency there (and just there) are as many as 20, and "Al-Qaeda," decimated though it may be, has more recruits than ever. Zarqawi, as important as he was to his cause, had his own setbacks -- he called for the death of Shi'ites and

What makes this bewildering war tricky is that you can't count these accomplishments as victories, not even in the same sense that a deposed Saddam is considered a humanitarian victory. It signifies little. We are nihilistic about Iraq.

According to CNN, oil has gone down due to Zarqawi's death, which feels like a blatant bid for American affection. And in one of their overbearing headlines that Davids Medienkritik is so fond of, Der Spiegel reports that Bush is happy or delighted that Zarqawi is dead.