On the menu today: The leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, meets a much-deserved bloody end in Kabul, Afghanistan — where he was the guest of honor of the Taliban once again; Joe Biden gets to take a victory lap; and voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington face big decisions in their primaries.
A Bad Day for Terrorists, but a Good Day for the World
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the longtime number two in al-Qaeda who took over the organization after the death of Osama bin Laden, departed this Earth on Saturday when he met the wrong end of two specially modified Hellfire missiles. This type of missile is designated as the R9X, known as the “flying Ginsu” because it uses sharp blades and high velocity to kill targets instead of an explosion.
Zawahiri will not rest in peace, but he is resting in pieces.
It’s understandable if you haven’t heard the name Ayman al-Zawahiri in a long while or thought about him much in recent years. Americans don’t really think about al-Qaeda much anymore, even though 20 years ago that would have seemed shocking. Back on September 11, 2018, I wrote:
Oh, some analysts say al-Qaeda won? I notice Osama bin Laden didn’t make it to the victory party. Every once in a while, his former lieutenant and al-Qaeda’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, issues some new video, but the American people barely hear about it. I don’t think that’s a reflection of bad news judgment on the part of the U.S. media producers. When bin Laden issued videos after 9/11, the whole world stopped and listened in fear. When Zawahiri talks, the world shrugs, or doesn’t notice at all. He’s turned into a remote-Pakistani podcaster.
When the U.S. Navy SEALs took out bin Laden, some terrorism analysts argued that the significance of that strike was likely to be overstated in the public’s mind, as al-Qaeda is an organization, not just one man. But effective leaders are not easily replaced, and it is now clear that al-Qaeda without bin Laden was a downgraded threat. Al-Qaeda turned into the terrorist equivalent of that band that was big when your dad was younger, lost its front man, kept making videos that no one watches, and you’re surprised to learn is still around today.
Al-Qaeda’s attacks after bin Laden’s death were smaller, and frankly largely forgotten. I’ll bet most Americans don’t remember al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claiming responsibility for the December 6, 2019, shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, when a member of the Saudi military being trained by American forces killed three people. The last al-Qaeda attack that dominated headlines around the globe was the January 2015 shooting at Charlie Hebdo’s offices in Paris.
With Zawahiri’s death, the last Islamist terrorist who was well-known to Americans is crossed off the list; he joins al-Qaeda founders Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden, and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Some would also put Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani on that list; he had a lot of American blood on his hands, and even though he was a state official, he supported, supplied, and enabled a lot of terrorist groups.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed is still sitting in Guantanamo Bay, where last we heard, his lawyers were seeking to negotiate a plea deal to spare him the death penalty. Then again, considering the complaint that Guantanamo Bay prisoners are getting fat and that one of them doubled his weight, maybe the plan is to kill him slowly through heart disease.
Sure, al-Qaeda and ISIS are still around and still have leaders, but Americans don’t think about them much and haven’t had much reason to think about them lately. I would argue that’s a victory of sorts. Of course, daily life for Americans has new threats and menaces — school shooters and other rage-filled nuts, high crime rates, vicious drug cartels and gangs, and God knows what kind of contagious virus could be coming our way on the next international flight.
Biden’s Run of Good News
Joe Biden ordered the strike against Zawahiri, and the al-Qaeda leader assumed room temperature on his watch, so Biden gets to take a victory lap. Shocking as this may seem to some people, Biden really is having a good stretch, particularly compared to the rest of this year’s cavalcade of disasters.
He got a superconductor chips bill through Congress, and Joe Manchin came around on a smaller version of Build Back Better, as long as it was called the “Inflation Reduction Act.” There are some signs that the Democratic enthusiasm for the midterms is picking up a bit and that Republican Senate candidates are underperforming in some key states. And now, he’s overseen the Zawahiri strike.
But even the success of the Zawahiri strike raises some questions about the long-term consequences of Biden’s past decisions. One of the reasons Zawahiri was in Kabul was because the U.S. vacated Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban to run the place unchallenged:
The Taliban confirmed an air strike on a residential house in the Sherpoor area of Kabul but said there were no casualties.
Zawahiri moved to a “very safe place” in Kabul a few months after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August last year, a senior leader of the radical group told Reuters on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
Now, there’s no doubt; Afghanistan is once again a base of operations for al-Qaeda. The fact that the U.S. can still strike targets in that country — at least in this case — is a welcome relief; killing Zawahiri is the first thing to go right for the U.S. in Afghanistan since Biden took office.
But it’s fair to worry about all of Zawahiri’s lieutenants and the rest of al-Qaeda in that country. A U.N. report last month concluded that:
Al-Zawahiri’s apparent increased comfort and ability to communicate has coincided with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the consolidation of power of key Al-Qaida allies within their de facto administration. . . . The international context is favorable to Al-Qaida, which intends to be recognized again as the leader of global jihad. Al-Qaida propaganda is now better developed to compete with ISIL (ISIS) as the key actor in inspiring the international threat environment, and it may ultimately become a greater source of directed threat.
A Big and Consequential Primary Day for Republicans
Today is primary day in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington. The editors of National Review have two particular endorsements that primary voters ought to heed and consider. First, in the Missouri Senate primary:
If Missouri Republicans are tempted to “own the libs,” or outrage progressives, by nominating the disgraced former governor Eric Greitens as their Senate candidate on Tuesday, they should think again. By elevating Greitens, they would only own themselves.
There are too many arguments against a Greitens redux to count, but the crux of it is that he is a candidate of singularly bad character who would be the weakest candidate in a general election. . . .
Both Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and Attorney General Eric Schmitt would be fine senators who would serve Missourians well. For our money, Schmitt is the best choice. His record is strong, and his performance in polling indicates he has a better chance than Hartzler of ensuring a Greitens defeat. He also looks better in polling against potential Democratic opponents than Hartzler, and much better than Greitens.
In a year that has featured some terrible decisions by Republican primary voters (*cough* Dr. Oz *cough*), nominating Greitens would be the most spectacular self-inflicted wound, taking what should be a near-certain slam-dunk win in Missouri and instantly turning it into a competitive race.
Then, in the Arizona gubernatorial primary:
[Kari Lake] and the chairwoman of the Arizona GOP, Kelli Ward, want to immolate the state GOP on a pyre of insanity and ridiculous lies, and may well succeed. . . .
[Lake] has called the 2020 election “the number-one issue” today, and maintains that it is “disqualifying” and “sickening” for her main opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson, to decline to say during a debate that the election was stolen.
She has the endorsement of the four horsemen of the election apocalypse — Donald Trump, Paul Gosar, Mike Flynn, and Mike Lindell — and there is no doubt that she has earned it. . . .
Robson, the alternative to Lake, is a real-estate developer who has the endorsement of Mike Pence and Governor Doug Ducey. She is a conservative and — we never thought that this would be a central distinguishing characteristic in such a high-profile race — rational.
Arizona Republicans should avoid the abyss.
The choice can’t get any clearer, Republicans.
Your mileage may vary; maybe you find former president Donald Trump’s endorsement of “Eric” in the Missouri Senate race funny. (Dan calls it “hilariously indecisive.”) To me, if you want to endorse a candidate, endorse a candidate. If you don’t want to endorse a candidate, don’t endorse a candidate. An endorsement is a declaration that “this candidate is the best choice,” or at least the better choice. It isn’t like filling out your NCAA Tournament bracket and trying to guess which team will win.
Greitens is a walking disaster area; Schmitt is a solid conservative and accomplished state attorney general who doesn’t record campaign ads fantasizing about hunting down and executing people who disagree with him. The only thing they have in common is their first name and that they’re both Republicans who want to serve in the Senate. If you can’t make a choice between those two, get out of the decision-making business.
ADDENDUM: The Taliban complains that the strike on Zawahiri is a violation of “international principles” and the 2020 agreement on a U.S. troop withdrawal.
Because if there’s any group that’s demonstrated that it cares about “international principles,” it’s the Taliban!