Bush commutes Libby sentence

[Thecla]

Where are you getting that from? I would be interested in seeing a source for such a statistic as I know my general impression has been that of Kandrathe's: the war that is being fought is mostly against non-Iraqis or Iraqis that have been supported by outside groups (Iran, other countries, terrorist organizations, etc).

I doubt that anyone has any accurate statistics --- or perhaps any clue --- about who is responsible for how many attacks, or what groups they really belong to. But you seem to have a very simplistic view of the situation, albeit the one frequently proposed by President Bush (that the war is the US and Iraq vs. Al Qaida and Iran).

From the recent National Intelligence Estimate:

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.

The violence is far from just being the creation of a few non-Iraqi foriegn fighters and Iranian-fomented agents.

From what I've read (and I could be wrong---I don't claim any special first-hand information) there is a sense of complete hoplessness in much of Iraq, and a strong likelyhood that a massive civil war between multiple different factions, on a scale that dwarfs the current bloodshed, is on the horizon. And if that does happen, it's possible that it will spill over to the entire region.

Edit: p.s. On the original question, gotta love this quote from AP

President Bush always said he would wait to talk about the CIA leak case until after the investigation into his administration's role. On Thursday, he skipped over that step and pronounced the matter old news hardly worth discussing.

Damn liberal press.