Zarqawi is an opportunist. He is using the chaos and insurgency in Iraq to advance his disdain against the Jordanian government. But unlike Bin Laden, his tactics have not endeared him to the Muslim masses. His attacks have an indiscriminate purpose, as if he expects order to emerge out of chaos without having any idea of what that order is. In contrast, Bin Laden's strategy has been to advance a diffuse network of ideology that has a clear purpose - to rid the middle east of the West -to eject the "crusaders" from the land of Muhammad.

Once caught or killed, Zarqawi's organization will collapse - and, trust me, he will be caught or killed. In this, he is far less dangerous than Bin Laden, whose radical muslim meme will proliferate and survive well beyond his capture or demise.

Even at that, Bin Laden is advancing a failing cause. His goal has been to create and insulate a region of the world that lives in Islamic purity, without the presence of ideological threats from western culture. But in this age of instantaneous communication and speed-of-light exchange of information, no fundamentalist belief can resist the ultimate infection of knowledge and ideas. Bin Laden's violence is a reaction to these death throes of his own world view - a lashing out against those he cannot defeat.

Unfortunately, it will take decades for us to rid the world of this scourge. And keep in mind we have our own version of this puritanical ideology in our own backyard. The violence against abortion clinics is an example of the threat that lies within. Certainly, Pat Robertson's calling upon God to punish the good citizens of Dovar, Pennsylvania is but another. But the religious right here in America is as doomed as Islamic fundamentalism is elsewhere.