Gee, pundits and news folks asking the question, “could Iraq have a civil war”?  Attention world.  It is a civil war and has been underway for some time.  Here’s what I wrote one year ago (November 20, 2005) (and yes, I get an “I-told-you-so” victory lap):

The multiple threats we face in Iraq will not be solved by an election.
The differences dividing the ethno religious groups in the territory of
Iraq cannot be bridged by a group hug or a sit down around a conference
table. We have ripped the scab off of an ancient wound and unleashed a
beast that cannot be calmed through diplomacy. We do not have the force
structure in place in Iraq to contain the burgeoning civil war.
Instead, we are becoming pawns that each side of this ethnic quagmire
will use to justify their particular agendas. The British learned the
hard way in the 1920s. It remains to be seen if we are willing to learn
anything from history or just destined to repeat it.

We now know the answer.  There is no learning going on at the White House or among many in the news business.  Speaking of learning.  Pat Lang almost had an aneurysm listening to Norah O’Donnell pretending to be a blond bimbo on Hardball today.  Here are Pat’s answers to questions posed by O’Donnell: