The Nation | Blog | The Daily Outrage | The Real Story of the Insurgency | Ari Berman: "At a testy hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 16, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to say how many insurgents are operating in Iraq. 'I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my job to do intelligent (sic) work,' Rumsfeld replied."

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"General Richard Myers sounded triumphant almost two years into the war. "I'd say the insurgents' future is absolutely bleak," Myers said at the same February 16 hearing. He then reversed course a week later, admitting that the insurgency could last anywhere from seven to twelve years."

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"A "pocket of dead-enders" has turned into a mix of former Baathists, Sunni nationalists, Shiite radicals and foreign terrorists numbering as many as 40,000 core fighters and 200,000 sympathizers, according to Iraq's own intelligence chief."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)