The Workday Liberal

In what has become an all too regular event, the capture of a high ranking member of Al-queda in Iraq was announced on Friday.

The American military Friday arrested a high-ranking member of al-Qaida in Iraq in the town of Ramadi, the U.S. Marines said.

Amir Khalaf Fanus, also known in the Ramadi area as "the Butcher," was wanted for criminal activities including murder and kidnapping

Well Mr. Butcher is really very lucky that Secretary Rice has clarified our position regarding detainee treatment. Under the old rules, he would likely have been at the bottom of some naked human pyramid with women's underwear on his head as you read this. Or worse. But did you notice how Ms. Rice allowed that there could be instances where our policies may be violated by rogues and miscreants in our employ? Maybe The Butcher is getting worked over after all. I'm sure Ms. Rice is keeping a close eye on the details of his treatment, unless of course some loose cannon rendered Mr. Butcher to the Iraqi interior ministry.

The real point of this post however is, how many top level officials can there possibly be in Iraq? We see headlines proclaiming these captures all the time. At some point it seems reasonable that Al-Qaida would run short on management material because their leaders are being rounded up in droves. At what point do we simply have Abu Musab al-Zarqawi running around acting the fool with a few Al Qaida grunts, because all the top and midlevel management have been captured and killed?

Well it appears that the magic has worn off with the media regarding all these high level captures. When I started bashing out this post I could only find the story on MSNBC. It just really is no longer news when we get these high profile arrests anymore. They are going to have to start doing better if they want more news coverage. I've got a great idea! How bout capturing Osama?