THE TENSION: Late Tue Post, Just Because I Am Uninspired

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that the US military presence in Iraq keeps neighbors from invading his country, reports AFP. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani disputed on Tuesday reports of growing violence in his country and declared, "I can assure you there will be no civil war," according to AP. Iraq is getting more respect now that it has an elected government, fully participating in dozens of meetings at the U.N. General Assembly, reports AP. "Now it's business," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

The Washington Post interprets the National Intelligence Estimate (pdf) to say the global jihadist movement is growing and being fueled by the war in Iraq even as it becomes more decentralized, making it harder to identify potential terrorists and prevent future attacks. The Post downplays perhaps the most important part of the paragraph in report that Democrats are using to attack administraion, which states the war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and drawing new adherents to the movement and if jihadists are perceived to be defeated in Iraq "fewer fighters would be inspired to carry on the fight." This is a dramatically different message than the selective leaks to the media. AP reproduces the estimate as part of their story, but ignores the the government document's ramifications of premature withdrawal from Iraq.