Cheney: "I don't think it's a civil war"

In an interview aired this morning that Vice President Cheney had with National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams, the veep said Iraq is not in a civil war.

But the order in which Williams asked his questions, invites the listener to reach the conclusion that the vice president may be wrong.

First, Williams asked Cheney about that whole "last throes" thing. Cheney famously said last year on CNN's Larry King show: "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

In the NPR interview conducted yesterday, Cheney backed away from that 2005 comment as he has in other instances recently.

WILLIAMS: One last question, do you think -- this business about last throes of the insurgency, do you think they're in the last throes now?

CHENEY: I can't say that. I made it clear earlier that I would have expected that the political process we set in motion, the three national elections and so forth would have resulted in a lower level of violence than we're seeing today. It hasn't happened yet. I can't say that we're over the hump in terms of violence, no.

Then Willams pops the civil war question.

WILLIAMS: Okay, in terms of civil war, would you call it that?

CHENEY: No, I don't think it's a civil war. You've got a united government, a unity government in place. You've got united military forces in terms of the army, and to some extent the security force. When I think civil war, I think Antietam, Gettysburg. I don't think we're there yet. But there's no question there's a lot of sectarian violence, a lot of Shia on Sunni violence.

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