4 Corners Turned

...and you end up right where you started. Let's see. We had "Mission Accomplished", "We Got Him", "Purple Fingers", and now "Zarqawi Snuff Porn". (I'm pretty sure I've missed at least one, but you get the picture.)

But if the only route you know is to go around and around, what do you do when you run out of corners to turn?

Ever since the war began to go south -- say, in the late summer or early fall of 2003 -- the Cheneyites have relied on a never-ending string of bogus "turning points" to deflect criticism and create the illusion that victory in Iraq (whatever that means) is creeping closer, despite the mounting chaos and death. But with Zarqawi's elimination, the never-ending string has, for all intents and purposes, ended.

There are no more name-brand dictators or terrorists left to catch or kill: Zarqawi's successor is so obscure nobody seems to know who he is or where he came from -- it's not even written into the script yet. The elections are over, so there'll be no more purple fingers to wave in front of the cameras. The "permanent" government has been formed; all of its ministers finally named.

The turning points, in other words, have all been turned, and Iraq is still a killing field. Now that the last few macbre headlines have been squeezed out of Zarqwari's autopsy report, democracy boy and his handlers literally have nothing to look forward to -- except a long, hot summer of IEDs, ethnic cleansing and more of those flag-wrapped caskets being Federal Expressed to cemetaries around the country.

Now I actually think that Billmon may be wrong - America's not out of boogeymen yet - just boogeymen in Iraq. Ahmedinejad is still there in Tehran, just begging to have his corner turned, if you know what I mean.