Starting in 2003, the Bush administration and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fell into a strange sort of cooperative arrangement: Both sides felt they could benefit by pumping up his reputation as a terrorist mastermind. The U.S. demonized him; Mr. al-Zarqawi obligingly portrayed himself as America's most ruthless and determined enemy.
He was, in fact, responsible for terrible and often gruesome acts of murder. He had arrived in Iraq shortly after U.S. forces did, determined to drive a wedge, violently, between Shiites and Sunnis. He had considerable success on that score, until his career as a jihadist ended Wednesday evening with two 500-pound bombs. He won't be mourned - not even by his putative allies.
Mr. al-Zarqawi, like countless zealots before him, had become ever more extreme in his religious views, to the point that he had turned even on the Sunni Iraqis who were supposedly his allies. Within the last week, his men had reportedly attacked a Sunni mosque because of what he believed to be an excess of idolatry, and had engaged in a separate gun battle with Sunnis that left four dead. His neighbors, on the outskirts of Baqubah, may well be glad to be rid of him, even as they continue to resist Shiite death squads and American military patrols.