Did bin Laden "Saddam" Zarqawi?

Did Bush do OBL another favor? OBL (intentionally or through sheer luck) got Bush to take out Saddam for him. Did OBL push the button on Zarqawi? Maybe Zarqawi had outlived his usefulness. The article says he and OBL didn't get along and that al-Qaeda recruitment in Iraq was down under Zarqawi.

OBL (the one Bush doesn't remember too well but who has actually declared war on and attacked the United States) is probably not crying over Zarqawi.

<snip>
"Until he was killed Wednesday by U.S. forces, the Jordanian-born guerrilla (Zarqawi) served as Osama bin Laden's proxy in Iraq, attracting hundreds if not thousands of foreign fighters under the al-Qaeda banner. At the same time, Zarqawi had grown into a strategic headache for al-Qaeda's founders by demonstrating an independent streak often at odds with their goals.

Despite written pleas from bin Laden's deputy to change his tactics, Zarqawi alienated allies in the Iraqi insurgency as well as Arab public opinion by killing hundreds of Muslims with suicide bombings. Zarqawi, a Sunni Muslim, repeatedly attacked Shiite shrines and leaders in a bid to fuel an Iraqi civil war, instead of primarily fighting the U.S. military and its partners.

...

"I don't believe al-Qaeda in Iraq will die as a result of the death of Zarqawi," said Mustafa Alani, a terrorism analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "Al-Qaeda headquarters will now have more influence on the Iraqi branch. At least, I think they'll be in a far better position than before."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060902040_pf.html

definitely "open".

and vice versa. UBL apparently thought that Zarqawi was wrong in attacking the Shiites, and Zarqawi thought that UBL was being too cautious. (!) So, labelling Zarqawi's organization as "Al Qaeda In Iraq" was a stretch.

remains, how many more did bush recruit?