The N.Y. Times has surfaced a classified U.S. military briefing that concludes, in chart form, that Iraq is veering toward “chaos.”

  • This is yet more proof that Bush & Co.’s public statements about Iraq are at odds with the conclusions of our own military. Some people call that lying.

    • New York Times:

    WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.

    A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting.

    The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad.

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