all of our 'official' spokespeople are denying a civil war exists

in iraq. yet most military analysts OUTSIDE of being official say it DOES indeed exist. it's low level (so far) and if we don't realize it, we are in even bigger trouble than we think we are.

Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War'

U.S. Officials Deny Violence Has Risen to That Level, but ABC News Analysts See a 'Serious Lack of Realism'
By JAKE TAPPER
BAGHDAD, March 5, 2006 — - As Pentagon generals offered optimistic assessments that the sectarian violence in Iraq had dissipated this weekend, other military experts told ABC News that Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq already are engaged in a civil war, and that the Iraqi government and U.S. military had better accept that fact and adapt accordingly.
"We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest.
"It's our failure to understand reality that has caused us to be late throughout this experience of the last three years in Iraq," added Nash, who is an ABC News consultant.
Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News, "If you talk to U.S. intelligence officers and military people privately, they'd say we've been involved in low level civil war with very slowly increasing intensity since the transfer of power in June 2004."
Since the elections last year, Cordesman says, more radical Islamist insurgents have made "a more dedicated strike at the fault lines between Shiites and Sunnis." And they have succeeded.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, however, U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disputed that. ...............

denial denial denial.

Murtha transcript: The only people who want us in Iraq are Iran, al Qaeda and China

Filed by RAW STORY
FULL TRANSCRIPT from an interview between CBS News and Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) on Sunday's Face the Nation. Video here

MR. SCHIEFFER: And good morning, again. Joining us in the studio, Congressman John Murtha. Of course, he is an ex-Marine. He was wounded in Vietnam. He was a hawk on Iraq, but then last November, he said it is time to bring the troops home and it re- kindled a debate, made it even fiercer.
Congressman Murtha, thank you for coming this morning. And I want to start by quoting something that General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this morning on "Meet the Press." He said he believes the war in Iraq is going, in his words, very, very well. What is your assessment?
REP. MURTHA: Why would I believe him? I mean, this administration, including the president, have mischaracterized this war for the last two years. They first of all, they said it will take 40,000 troops to settle this thing right after the invasion. Then they said there's no insurgency, they're dead enders is what the secretary of defense said -- on and on and on this mischaracterization of the war. They said there's nuclear weapons. There were no nuclear weapons there, there's no biological weapons there, no al Qaeda connection. So why would I believe the chairman of the Joint Chiefs when he says things are going well?
I asked my staff -- when they make a statement like this, I said look, look in the latest report that the State Department puts out, the weekly report, and tell me how much progress we've made. So they look at it and we've made no progress at all. Sixty percent unemployment, the Iraqis want us out of there -- 80 percent of the Iraqis want us out of there -- oil production's below prewar level, water production -- only 30 percent of the people getting water.
Now our troops are being fed well and being taken care of. They're doing everything they can do militarily, but they're in a situation where they're caught in a civil war. And there's two participants fighting for survival and fighting for supremacy inside that country and that's my definition of a civil war...........