Welcome, I'm Anastasia Glova bringing you the Cato Daily Podcast.

Full and edited versions of our podcasts are available on our website at

W. Kato.org

Abbou Masab al-Zarkawi's death ends a three-year manhunt for Al-Qaeda's number one man in Iraq.

Is this a turning point in the war or just one more reason to get out of Iraq fast.

Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Christopher Preble speaks.

Is this a significant milestone in the war on terror?

Are we seeing real progress?

Well, it's significant in the sense that Zarcoi was clearly a leading terrorist, both in Iraq but also internationally

responsible for killings in Jordan and elsewhere, not just in Iraq.

He is a leading terrorist.

He is closely tied affiliated with Al Qaeda and in that sense it is always good news and

it's always a sign of progress when senior al-Qaeda leaders, senior terrorists

are killed or removed are captured.

And so in that sense I think it's significant.

How have Iraqis received this news? Is there any reason to believe that Sarkawi's death can help

unify the many factions and strengthen the new government?

It's a little too soon to say how Iraqis have reacted to the news but it is true that Zarqawi was

widely reviled inside of Iraq he very very cynically manipulated the sectarian

tensions inside of the country very deliberately pitting

Shia versus Sunni and trying very hard to foment a civil war between the

various ethnic and religious factions inside of the country so he was seen correctly as terrorizing the people of Iraq. He was seen

...