(Apologies if this has already been covered, I didn't see it listed in the first 50 diaries.)
Something you won't hear in Bush's optimistic "We're making progress on the ground..." bombast, is any reference to the most recent report from the National Intelligence Council.
According to
this AP story, the official National intelligence Estimate indicates that civil war in iraq is increasingly likely.
A few choice quotes:
"The National Intelligence Council presented President Bush this summer with several pessimistic scenarios regarding the security situation in Iraq, including the possibility of a civil war there before the end of 2005.
In a highly classified National Intelligence Estimate, the council looked at the political, economic and security situation in the war-torn country and determined that -- at best -- stability in Iraq would be tenuous, a U.S. official said late Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
At worst, the official said, were "trend lines that would point to a civil war." The official said it "would be fair" to call the document "pessimistic."
...
"It is the first formal assessment of Iraq since the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on the threat posed by fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
A scathing review of that estimate released this summer by the Senate Intelligence Committee found widespread intelligence failures that led to faulty assumptions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Disclosure of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq came the same day that Senate Republicans and Democrats denounced the Bush administration's slow progress in rebuilding Iraq, saying the risks of failure are great if it doesn't act with greater urgency."
And, the information used to make the assessment was gathered before the US invasion. Before the extent of the opposition to our occupation was evident.
So, I pose a hypothetical question... Which side will the US troops be fighting on? On the other hand, one could argue that civil war is already taking place in Iraq. Just not quite yet at the level that it could.