J. R. Dunn (I can't put my finger on why I think his analysis is so spot on...) states:
The way the media plays it, you’d think Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the greatest Muslim strategist since Saladin. Every car bomb is a Jacob’s Ford, every massacre a Hattin every move a masterstroke against the clumsy and inept Crusaders. He makes no errors and suffers no setbacks, and his victory, when it inevitably comes to pass, will be well-earned.
This interpretation of events has become the conventional wisdom, so widespread and ingrained as to excite no comment whatsoever (even some conservative voices have joined this chorus), despite the fact that it’s next to impossible to discern any strategy, method, or pattern behind Zarqawi’s activities beyond the urge to kill as many people as brutally as possible.
These guys are murderous clowns. They are fighting an insurgency backwards and are sliding down the escalation ladder to Howard Dean screams.
But you wait. The media will portray bus bombings in Iraq as the latest brilliant tactic of our enemy that will inevitably lead to our well-earned defeat.