Appreciate your insight on the current various fighting groups (since I would flunk the test also).
Maybe part of the real strategy in Iraq is to "ignore" the "civil war." Seems it would work...let them fight each other instead of allied troops.
"let them fight each other instead of allied troops."
That would be nice, except we now seem to be suffering 10 soldiers dead each day. I seem to recall when it was more like 10 a week.
Tom Clancy's book "Shadow Warriors", a factual account of Special Forces, has a very good long chapter on "The Lebanon Tragedy." I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of what works, and with this specific chapter, what some of our problems in the Middle East. One example is the fact that our intelligence capability in Lebanon was wiped out twice. Once when our embassy was bombed killing a lot of intelligence staff, and secondly when the head of local CIA was captured, presumably tortured, and his contacts killed or disappeared. He was also never found alive or perhaps not at all. We have really been blind intelligence wise for some time in that part of the world and it shows.