Another round of promotions

Bush's poll number goes down, and some lucky Al-Qaida operative gets a promotion to the Number 3 spot. The Carpetbagger report is keeping track of the ever increasing list of #3s, while the Cunning Realist takes note of the "trusted lieutenants" that we keep turning up. Is there any other kind of lieutenants? And how many "executive secretaries" do we have to nab before Al-Qaida comes crashing down? Man, that's a terrorist organization with one messed up org chart.

But lets say we get Osama Bin Laden himself tomorrow. That would be good, because he is an evil bastard. But considering the nature of the insurgency, oops sorry, the rejectionistency, I hardly think it will be the end of our troubles.

Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on Americans and Iraqis in the last few months:

Supporters of the Sunni People. The Men's Faith Brigade. The Islamic Anger. Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The Tawid Lions of Abdullah ibn al Zobeir. While some of them, like the Suicide Brigade, claim an affiliation with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Al Qaeda claims them, others say they have acted alone or under the guidance of another group.

While on Wednesday President Bush promised nothing less than "complete victory" over the Iraqi insurgency, the apparent proliferation of militant groups offers perhaps the best explanation as to why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy.