Watershed week

I'm beginning to think this week may go down as a watershed week in at least two ways. First, I suspect that the Portgate story may be the turning point where Bush loses his claim to be America's Great Protector. The polls have shown that that's the only area in which his performance is seen as positive by a majority of Americans. This week may see the end of that.

On a more somber note, this week may be the point where Iraq slips from insurgency to full scale civil war. With the bombing of the Askariya Shiite shrine and the reprisals against Sunni mosques today, I fear the scales have tipped beyond insurgency. The country is already virtually ungovernable, and the various contending factions are becoming increasingly polarized. I hope I'm wrong about this, but there's only so much these groups can take before they strike back violently. The only thing that may hold them together is their common hatred of America.