I think Kevin is both correct and giving them too much credit. The only "bad guys" we can kill are those we label "al Qaeda" because anything else basically involves taking sides in any number of sectarian conflicts.
However that's not the same thing as saying this is the most useful thing to do. Maintaining security doesn't simply involve trying to kill "the bad guys," and killing the bad guys also generally involves killing some not bad people especially when air power is involved.
More than that, "fighting al Qaeda" is simply Bush administration propaganda for what the entire war effort is about. Bush thinks we're fighting al Qaeda, the public thinks "fighting terrorists" is a noble cause, and 6 years later we're still linking all this up to a horrible day in September when a bunch of guys not from Iraq killed a bunch of people on US soil.
The administration has never been able to distinguish their propaganda about what was going on in Iraq with what was actually going on in Iraq.
...nor has Fred Hiatt ever been able to do so.
