War Is Peace

Cheney also quite astonishingly laughed off Schieffer's first question about his accidental shooting of a fellow hunter last month. "It's probably the first time the Secret Service have had to worry about a protectee shooting somebody else, instead of being shot at," he said.

Asked again about his controversial decision not to inform the public about the shooting until the next day, Cheney called it as "a tempest in a teapot."

For the record, Cheney's delayed reporting of the accident raised several questions that have yet to be answered, including: Did he have something to hide? Was he reckless?

Reality Check

Timothy M. Phelps writes for Newsday: "Three years ago today, President George W. Bush told the American people that the war with Iraq had begun, in order to 'disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.' . . .

"Today it is clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and independent investigators found that there was no credible evidence to support the allegation in other speeches that Saddam Hussein was plotting with terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. Terrorism experts say that under the occupation Iraq has become a training ground for terrorists, and the results are beginning to show up in countries like Jordan and Afghanistan."

Aamer Madhani reports for the Chicago Tribune from Baghdad that the Bush administration's "rosy outlook belies the reality on the ground. The Iraqi armed forces remain dependent on the U.S. military, the Interior Ministry suffers from rampant corruption, the insurgency still plagues four provinces, and the Sunni minority feels marginalized. . . .

"Even Iraqis who considered themselves optimists about their country's future say they fear the deepening Shiite-Sunni strife will push the country into a dark abyss."

No Civil War?

The BBC reports: "Iraq is in the middle of civil war, the country's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi has told the BBC. . . .

" 'We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.' "

Ronald Brownstein writes in the Los Angeles Times: "The issue of whether Iraq's sectarian fighting constitutes a civil war has taken on political significance. Polls have shown American support for the Iraq war dropping since the bombing last month of a Shiite shrine in Samarra led to widespread communal violence. Strategists in both parties have said that Bush will have a more difficult time sustaining support for the U.S. military presence in Iraq if the public believes that troops are caught in the middle of a civil war. . . .

"As administration officials sought to rebut the idea of a civil war, lawmakers, also speaking on the Sunday interview programs, supported Allawi's conclusion.

" 'I think . . . the former prime minister is correct,' Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on 'This Week.'