Last year they did this in Fallujah. Now they're doing it in Qaim. Explain to me how that is not progress given that the campaign has shifted from the heart of Iraq west to the border with Syria.
That is an assumption you're making based on publicly available information. We're putting a lot of pressure on Syria in various ways. There may be black ops happening in Syria, including elimination of some of the Syrian enablers of these foreign fighters. Some Syrian facilities could be blowing up inexplicably in demolitions that are just under the interest level of the MSM.
Bush cares about the troops in Iraq and you can bet that he's doing as much as he can to defend them without making the situation worse. There are reasons why we haven't executed a full-scale retaliation against Syria. Most likely that is because an attack on Syria would cost us more than we gain in the form of lost intelligence and other support from friendly elements in the Arab world. The full story of the Iraq war isn't in the newspapers and much more is happening behind the scenes that you won't read about for another 20 years.