The Occasional Observer

A new Pentagon report claims that using the phrase "civil war" to describe the situation in Iraq is an oversimplification and an inadequate term. What I find most interesting about this, though, is that while 99% of the media has been busy over the past few months running puff pieces simply re-hashing this phrase without attempting to get more than a cursory understanding of the actual situation on the ground, one reporter actually got it right. That was Taheri of NY Post, who basically made the case six weeks earlier that the Pentagon does today. As always, the Post was leading the way.

While the average American probably doesn't care whether the violence is from a true civil war or not, certainly policymakers looking to find a meaningful solution to the violence in Iraq must understand its true nature and cause.