Bush Outreach: Words But Not Deeds

"The administration struggled yesterday to put the best face on the NIE's assessment of a bleak situation that it says will sharply worsen unless 'measurable' military and political progress is made.

"National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said the estimate 'explains why the president concluded that a new approach and new strategy was required.'"

Mark Mazzetti writes in the New York Times: "In choosing to take the rare step of making public three and a half pages of 'key judgments' from the classified report, administration officials seized on one conclusion -- that American forces remain 'an essential stabilizing element in Iraq' -- to reinforce their view that more troops are needed to secure Baghdad and give Iraqi leaders breathing room to develop a political settlement, particularly between the warring Sunnis and Shiites."

'Civil War' Watch

The report also indicates that "civil war" -- the term the White House has so assiduously avoided using for Iraq -- is actually not alarmist enough.

"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."

Here is the text of Hadley's briefing on Friday.

"Q Mr. Hadley, I want to go back to the term 'civil war.' The administration has really gone out of its way not to use that term, 'civil war,' in the same way that Don Rumsfeld wouldn't call it a 'guerrilla war' when it was, or an 'insurgency' when it was. Why do you go out of your way not to use that word? The President goes out of his way, as well. You say labels are difficult, but is it not important -- certainly any military strategist will tell you it's important to know what kind of fight you're in. Can you call it a civil war, and why haven't you?

"MR. HADLEY: We know what kind of fight we're in. We know the facts. That is described well in this NIE, and we have a strategy to deal with those facts and to try to succeed.

"Q Is it a civil war?

"MR. HADLEY: I will tell you what this NIE says.

"Q I want to know why you avoid using that term.

"MR. HADLEY: Because it's not an adequate description of the situation we find ourselves, as the intelligence community says."