The Fog of Civil War

I refuse to even discuss the pros and cons of calling Iraq a civil war. Even NBC has changed its banners; others will follow. As it has so consistently done, the Bush Administration is ignoring the bad news and relying on a series of short term tactics--in this case rhetoric--to win the political war at home.

Did you read the NYT article claiming that insurgents were now self-financed? The response from almost every official and expert was that this was a rediculous ploy by the Administration to further conflate the war in Iraq with the war on terror. American forces and civilians have not infiltrated these groups, and their understanding of how they function is so poorly understood that there is no way such a claim could be substantiated.

The Washington Post has a story today that wonderfully elaborates on why the insurgency is poorly understood and why this is an unwinable war. Observe:

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Fartoosi has been a militiaman with the Shiite Muslim Mahdi Army of firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Last week, he also served as a relief worker, a policeman, a traffic controller and a guard.

So did thousands of his militia comrades who mobilized to assist victims of the deadliest attack on Iraqis since the invasion, highlighting the power associated with the Mahdi Army's less-publicized roles in Iraqi society.

"We do even more than what the government should do," said Fartoosi, 21, as he recalled the eight grueling hours after a barrage of car bombs, mortars and missiles killed more than 200 people in Baghdad's Shiite heartland.

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