We're Number Two!

Briefly, because I know how valuable your time is, from the Associated Press this morning:

BAGHDAD - American troops acting on a tip killed the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq — a Moroccan known for his ability to recruit and motivate foreign fighters — in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

That's awesome. Any time we can take out the No. 2 guy in a terrorist organization is a good time for America. Hoo-ah. Our troops are so good at what we make them do that some in this country would like to see them doing it indefinitely.

Clearly, the last person anyone would want to be is the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Being No. 1 is risky enough - ask Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's next of kin - but for No. 2, every day could potentially be the last. And it's been this way forever, it seems.

Why, this was the second No. 2 to go down just this year. MSNBC reported that the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed on March 2, 2008. I don't know if this success comes from racial profiling, or if these guys wear jerseys, or what.

Whatever the case, on September 28, 2007, it was reported that No. 2 was killed by U.S. troops in Mosul. (He was later deemed the "leader of foreign fighters" in Iraq - sound familiar?) Wait, though... Ten weeks before that, we actually captured the top leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, or so National Public Radio reported.

Naturally, we had already killed the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in January of that same year. Basically we've been killing either the new leader, or the next leader, of al-Qaida in Iraq since September of 2005. The one time we all know for sure that we got him was in June of 2006 (Zarqawi).

His successor, himself a former No. 2, wound up in a pine box just four months later. Yet another second-stringer was reported captured on September 4, 2006 (same source, that pesky NPR). And that's just the stuff I found in the first two pages of a Yahoo! search.

Yeah, we're winning the war, all right. One No. 2 at a time.

pH 1o.15.o8