from:A day after a Pentagon report described spreading sectarian violence and increasingly complex security problems in Iraq, President Bush painted a rosier picture. "Our commanders and diplomats on the ground believe that Iraq has not descended into a civil war," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "They report that only a small number of Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, while the overwhelming majority want peace and a normal life in a unified country."
from:In a new assessment of Iraq they acknowledged as "pretty sober," senior Pentagon officials sketched out a bloody landscape Friday of sectarian violence spreading beyond Baghdad and execution-style assassinations and terrorist bombings by increasingly entrenched private militias and death squads.
"This is probably the most complex combat environment we have seen since the war began," said Rear Adm. William Sullivan, the top strategic planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
These are not two different views of the situation in Iraq. These are two different readings of the same report. The first is President Bush’s read. The second is the read by the authors of the report. You pick which one to believe…
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