The Positivity of Absolute Value

Current Vice President Dick Cheney says no.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says yes.

Who to believe?
Allawi points out that "We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If that is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
But Cheney says, "What we have seen is a serious effort by them to foment civil war, but I don't think they have succeeded."

It is difficult to distinguish which argument is closer to reality while not being present in the situation.
And I in no way have an agenda to push on this issue for that reason.

But the reality is, the majority of us (Americans) have to deal with the war, in all of its political glory from afar. And thus are given the choice to either rely on the opinions of top officials, or not. So, who to believe?

We do have blogs like Iraq the Model, and the slew of Iraq blogs bookmarked on that page. And while these are great wells of information, they are still only surrogates of that information which cast certain experienced bias upon the reporting they do. They can't help it, it's natural.

Then,who to believe?
I suppose I'll just continue on for a while without fully developing an opinion on the matter. Listening to the lobbying on all sides and trying to grasp the angles.
That's not such a bad position I guess.
Pardon these musings of a centrist detached.