Nov 15, 2019
A hero of the Left has passed away. One of the most famous undead people in the world, the Islamic State (ISIS) caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been reported dead yet again, and this time it actually appears to be true. The Washington Post headlined its story about the killing as if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was one of their favored anti-Trump intellectuals, dead at a tragically young age: “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.” Bloomberg wrote that “Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi transformed himself from a little-known teacher of Koranic recitation into the self-proclaimed ruler of an entity that covered swaths of Syria and Iraq.” The respect! The deference! The admiration! Isn't it touching?