Ralph Peters demolishes the fraudulent application of the term "civil war" to the stepped up terror bombings in Iraq. With vivid detail and economical prose, he lays out the case against the antique media propaganda campaign to convince the public that Bush's War is a disaster for America.

THE reporting out of Baghdad continues to be hysterical and dishonest. There is no civil war in the streets. None. Period.

Terrorism, yes. Civil war, no. Clear enough?

There is nothing like being on—the—spot:

it's more like a city suffering a minor, but deadly epidemic. As in an epidemic, no one knows who will be stricken. Rich or poor, soldier or civilian, Iraqi or foreigner. But life goes on. No one's fleeing the Black Death — or the plague of terror.

And the people here have been impressed that their government reacted effectively to last week's strife, that their soldiers and police brought order to the streets. The transition is working. 

Most Iraqis want better government, better lives — and democracy. It is contagious, after all

Read every word of it.

Thomas Lifson   3 01 06

UPDATE: LTC Joe Myers takes a more jaundiced and certainly more informed view of another Peters piece:

Peters as usual overwrites, but cuts through the haze—— Several critical points:

1.War is a test of wills i.e. faith, or what Clausewitz called 'moral forces' — will is decisive [do we have it vs. the suicide bomber, Islamic civilization, anti—Americans]

2. China will fight us 'unrestricted,' go for the heart of our will—electrical power, finance, food supply, battalions of hackers: how many of them can we kill with F/A 22?

3. China is outflanking us regionally [ making headway across sea—lane chokepoints, nuclearizing regional partners to regionally contain us]

4. Global intelligentsia —Islamist mullahs and Imams, Marxists, utopianists, populist politicians all combine to strategically isolate America supported by a global media

5. The media is the decisive element of the counter—revolution [information, disinformation, misinformation]

I read the QDR, I did not see any of these themes addressed, maybe I missed it....