By Steve McNamara

The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has a new look almost every day. First it was a triumph of American military intelligence and airpower. Then it was evidence of the shredding of Zarqawi’s network because somebody had ratted him out (for a $25 million reward, mind you).

Now there’s a new view seen in places as different as The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. It’s that al-Zarqawi was ratted out from within al Qaeda not by somebody seeking the money, but by the group’s leadership because the guy had become a liability. He infuriated the Jordanians by blowing up those fancy hotel wedding parties some time ago, and until then Jordan had been mainly angry with the Americans for invading Iraq. He went over the edge with his videotaped beheadings. He, a Sunni, created the wrong kind of fuss by insisting that all Shiites were implacable foes to be eliminated. So it was time to bid him farewell and praise him as a martyr.

Wouldn’t it be weird if the $25 million flowed somehow into the coffers of al Qaeda?

DEMOCRATS are in a huge sweat over what their message should be if they are to unhorse the Republicans in the fall elections. Take it easy, people. The problem has been solved for you by (I think it was him) Newt Gingrich. He said if it were his choice he would boil it down to two words and simply say over and over again, “Had Enough?”

WITHIN the media community there are brickbats flying over the issue of Iraq coverage and the dangers thereof. Right wing pundits claim that mainstream media people are covering the war from their hotel rooms. Consequently, say the right-wingers, they don’t see all the peace and joy that is the actual face of Iraq. Mainstream media people are enraged. They say they do indeed leave their hotel rooms and find not peace and joy but danger and death. As a consequence more of them have been killed than in any previous U.S. war.

But an important point is being missed. Yes, media people do get out of their hotel rooms. What they do is visit military facilities and make dangerous trips with soldiers and Marines. What they don’t do—can’t do—is mingle much with the Iraqis and tell us what’s happening among the people of this country we are supposed to be liberating.

There are exceptions. The Kurdish region to the north is fairly peaceful and we get a sense of what it’s like for the people there. Every now and again there will be a non-military story from elsewhere. Such as the recent Times piece about the number of Iraqis who flee their country in vast and increasing numbers. And there is freelancer Nir Rosen, who looks and speaks like an Iraqi and so can mingle with the populace.

But mainly we get not a history of this great misadventure, but a military history, told from one side only. The real story will come later.

IT WAS A PUZZLE: How in the world can George Bush have such a cheery view of the situation in Iraq when all the evidence is otherwise?

A big part of the answer seems to be Meghan O’Sullivan, age 36. According to a Times profile, she’s the person in the White House who gives Bush his Iraq briefings. According to the story, her briefings are “succinct” and “cheerful—exactly what Mr. Bush likes.”

Her approach has been memorialized: Says the Times story: “In Baghdad, American Embassy officials sometimes use the phrase, ‘Let’s not Meghan-ize the problem,’ meaning, let’s not try to impose order on the chaos of Iraq with one of her five-point presentations.”

So that’s where Bush’s dopey smile comes from. Puzzle solved.