After Zarqawi: A Drawdown of Troops?

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But al-Zarqawi did have an impact that measured far greater than the number of his fighters, which is why his demise was as much a psychological victory as an operational one. If the strike changes history in Iraq, it will be a matter more of momentum than mechanics. For the thousands of Americans fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of what the Pentagon calls a "Long War" against terrorism, the ability to pause, even for an hour, to revel in a clear military success was welcome. "A cult figure is dead because people he trusted betrayed him," a senior U.S. government official mused on his back porch in Washington on the night of the announcement, smoking a cigar and sipping wine. "They'll be studying this op years from now at the war colleges."

Iraqis weren't waiting. Most seem just to want their country back, from the insurgents and from the Americans. In the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, locals drove around as if the entire town were taking part in a wedding procession, putting flowers on their cars and thrusting guns into the air. Mohammed Kareem, 36, spoke of a simple hope--"to live a peaceful life." Despite al-Zarqawi's death, that aspiration, as even President Bush would concede, may take years to achieve. The challenge for Bush is to convince Americans as well as Iraqis like Kareem that patience deserves to be a virtue again.