Griper Blade: Iraq Turning Out Pretty Much the Way You'd Expect

Official Reports of Real Bad News Weekend continues. I posted about the final word on global warming -- it's bad. Today, it's the National Intelligence Estimate dealing with Iraq -- also bad.

It's no wonder John Negroponte sat on this report for about six months. Unfortunately, it hasn't mellowed with aging.

The summary report [PDF] waffles about Iraq being in civil war, but only because "the term 'civil war' does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq..."

The Intelligence Community judges that the term "civil war" does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, al-Qa'ida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence. Nonetheless, the term "civil war" accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization, and population displacements.

So it's civil war, except when it's not. I think the term they're looking for is 'total anarchy.' Who could've foreseen that? Turns out, just about everyone...

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Tags: news | politics | war | Iraq | Bush | Donald Rumsfeld | National Intelligence Estimate | Troop Surge