Meanwhile...

While the long overdue death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the "sheikh of the slaughterers," is hailed as a "good omen" by the American ambassador to Iraq, it is likely that conditions in Iraq will continue to worsen. Knowing who this man was and why he fought are key to understanding why.

Zarqawi was the most famous but not the most important fighter committed to defeating the American coalition and its Shia allies in Iraq. His martyrdom will mythologize him in a way that his arrest would have shamed him.

As a young man growing up in Jordan, he was a tattooed thug known for alcohol-induced brawling. Inspired by the men who were returning home from the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, Zarqawi made his way there, receiving both martial training and education in the ideology of jihad.

He returned to Jordan intent on overthrowing the monarchy, but quickly landed in jail. It was in prison where his star rose. Zarqawi organized both other aspiring jihadis and ordinary criminals from Jordan's underworld and led them, defying the prison authorities. He was released in 1999 and set out for Afghanistan, where he found both Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban too moderate for his tastes. He set up a camp in western Afghanistan, then, after the 9/11 attacks, abandoned it for the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.

Zarqawi must have been surprised when, in February 2004, Colin Powell mentioned his name at the United Nations, claiming he was the link between Al Qaeda, to whom Zarqawi did not belong, and Saddam's regime, with whom Zarqawi had no relationship. Zarqawi made his way south, deeper into Iraq from Kurdistan, only after the Americans removed Saddam. He rallied foreign fighters who had come in from Syria and Jordan before the war and called on his friends in Jordan to join him in attacking both Americans and Shias.

But -- and this is crucial -- Shias were Zarqawi's favorite target. His ideology, known as Salafi Jihadism, views them as infidels, apostates and polytheists, worse even than the Christians and Jews, deserving only death.

Unlike the majority of the Iraqi-led insurgency, Zarqawi was not fighting to free Iraq from the American occupier. He was fighting a cosmic battle against all the perceived enemies of Islam that would end when an Islamic emirate was reestablished, or in Judgment Day.

And so, with Zarqawi doing everything in his power to spark conflict by attacking Shia civilians -- and welcoming the retribution against Sunnis -- the war among Iraqis escalated.

Through it all, nobody has done more for Zarqawi's reputation than the Americans themselves. The Americans sought to deny there was an Iraqi-dominated resistance to the occupation and attributed the attacks to foreign fighters like Zarqawi. That made him a hero to aspiring jihadis throughout the Arab world, who have flocked to join his cause or at least sent money.

Zarqawi's final legacy is the civil war he helped spark. Expect to see a new group in Iraq, named after Zarqawi, claiming responsibility for major attacks against a Shia leader or large numbers of Shia civilians. Zarqawi's war will not stop with his death.