Do the #2s all wear red?

Breaking news of the day: Al Qaeda #2 honcho Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed.

Random thoughts:

• Why do I get the feeling that most people will greet this news with a collective yawn? Because it's just the latest iteration of the Al Qaeda bogeyman cycle:
  
  1. Introduce Al Qaeda's number 2 honcho, Abu Fill-in-the-blank.
  2. Hype up the evil/scheming/relentless threat of Abu Numero Two-o.
  3. Kill Abu Deux in a highly-publicized news event, reap ratings bump.
  4. Repeat.

  Don't believe me? Start counting the days on your calendar before the White House and the mainstream media start tooting the horns of Al Qaeda's new #2 guy, and how the War on Terror isn't over because this (gasp shock) new threat is still out there plotting the destruction of everything.

• Which, of course, means the only person who wants to be Dog #2 at Al Qaeda must be a freakin' moron. Sure, you get a burst of international infamy for a while, but it's gonna end in a messy way when Bush needs a bump in his approval ratings -- which, these days, means "every week."

  Or maybe the Al Qaeda braintrust uses this as a way to weed out the incompetents they want to get rid of. "Boy, Abu Abooboo Ali is a real screwup -- let's make him the new #2 guy!" It's gotta be easier than giving them redshirts.

• Of course, it's also a sure thing that the Bush Administration (and its conservative apologists) will be trumpeting this as "proof" that George isn't entirely incompetent at fighting terrorism. Yet no one will bother to ask, "Why are you guys dicking around with the #2 goobers? Why not try a little harder and take out Mr. #1 already?"

  To which the cynical response is, "Because then they'll have no more excuses for keeping the populace in fear -- and performing their unconstitutional abuses of power."

I'm not shedding any tears for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but don't be deceived for a moment that his death is any sort of sea change.