A commentator on NPR Thursday morning called the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi a symbolic victory for the U.S. forces and the government of Iraq.
While I’m sure this is true, one thing hundreds of hours of creative writing workshops has taught me is that symbols are cheap. They can be created for literally nothing, and if they catch on and reach, say, crucifixion-level recognition, the cost-benefit analysis is incalculable.
Because symbols are so cheap and easy to create, there’s no reason Iraqi insurgents and/or Islamic extremists can’t just coin Zarqawi a major Muslim martyr, a soul around whom to rally the next generation of suicide bombers and hardliners. If we are lucky, and so far we haven’t been, his image will show up on t-shirts in markets from Malaysia to Tunisia, an Arab Che Guevara. In that case, the war will be over and, yet again, the marketers will have won.