Can these high-ranking military officers possibly mean what they said? Even before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the term “civil war” was being bruited about. This was because even a casual viewer of the Discovery Channel or some such thing knew that Iraq was an artificial creation of Britain — Gertrude Bell, Winston Churchill, et al. The casual viewer also knew that a minority of Sunnis had governed a majority of Shiites through the application of violence and a not inconsiderable amount of torture. ~Richard Cohen, The Washington Post

George Bush’s reply: “I thought Iraqis were all Muslims!”

Perhaps George could use a cable subscription, complete with the Discovery Channel.  We might want to block his access to the Hitler, er, History Channel, though, because it would just get him fired up to go after the next dictator who’s just like Hitler. 

As for the generals, we should give these folks a break.  I mean, it’s not as if their analysts warned them about all these scenarios…oh, wait, Thomas Ricks in Fiasco said that they did make all the proper warnings and predictions and that these were shot down because they were politically undesirable.  Phase IV, what’s that?  Something from Star Trek?