New dawn in Mesopotamia?

The skies over Iraq have seen many false dawns in the past few years. Each faint glimmer of Mesopotamian morning...

The skies over Iraq have seen many false dawns in the past few years. Each faint glimmer of Mesopotamian morning 8212; the fall of Baghdad, the killing of Uday and Qusay, the capture of Saddam, successive elections and referendums 8212;has quickly given way again to the everlasting night of war. The hope engendered by each breakthrough has been mocked so cruelly and so completely in subsequent months that we have become steadily and increasingly desensitised to any good news.

And yet there are some events so singular and so innately benign that they can still pierce the cocoon of cynicism from which all but the most optimistic observers view events in Iraq.The elimination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the totemic figurehead of the bloody insurgency, is surely one such8230;

So what is so important about this one man8217;s removal from the battlefield? For a country and a world inured to the spectacle of failure and shame in Iraq, this simple triumph has a number of positive consequences.

The most obvious immediate benefit is the improved morale and standing of the fledgeling Iraqi government. The serendipitous timing of this week8217;s operation 8212; on the very day that Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, affixed the final pieces to his Cabinet puzzle with new Defence and Interior ministers 8212; should bestow some much needed legitimacy8230;

The second reason for muted celebration is the effect this should have on the American military. Battered in the past few weeks by allegations of murder and cruelty, US servicemen needed not only to demonstrate to the world concrete progress in their thankless effort, but also to remind sceptics who is the real enemy in this war.

The challenges in Iraq for these young men and women are overwhelming. In the past three years more than half a million American troops have been rotated through the country. They have been fighting a suicidal counter-insurgency in a battle for which they are ill-equipped and ill-trained. While barbarity cannot ever be condoned, it beggars belief to think that in these conditions, with these numbers, outrages will never occur.

Excerpted from an article by Gerard Baker in 8216;The Times8217;, London, June 9