Bush has not bounced

Since the killing of Zarqawi on June 7th, the easily manipulated media has declared that we have somehow turned the corner in Iraq and the president has gotten a "bounce" in the polls.

Nonsense. The Iraq war is going as it has always gone: poorly. We are refereeing a sectarian civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. We are not fighting back old Baathists, they are gone or dead. Today's grim discovery of the two missing American soldiers bodies should cement in the collective head of America that we need to light a fire under the collective bottom of Iraq.

The Cato Insitute's Ted Galen Carpenter argues:

"Enough is enough. At some point, the Iraqi people need to stand on their own feet and decide whether they will cooperate in governing the country or whether they will wage an increasingly bloody sectarian war. If the choose the latter, America does not have a dog in that fight."

There have been several supposed milestones of Iraqi success: Saddam's overthrow, free elections, the deaths of Saddam's sons and now the killing of the number one terrorist in Iraq, a man who was starting to get under the skin of the majority of the Iraqi people. None of these events have actually produced the desired goal: the return of American troops to American soil.

Then again, we've been playing this game for quite some time. And with a president who's stated goal is the elimination of tyranny everywhere, don't expect a change in strategy.