Take a look at this story by the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank.

Why is it that so many reporters can’t conceive that there may be more than one conflict taking place in Iraq?

Yes, we’re fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq: All those foreign suicide-bombers blowing up Iraqi mothers and children in the market places probably are not secular Iraqi nationalists protesting the U.S. occupation.

And yes, there also is the problem of sectarian violence — which both al-Qaeda and Iran are attempting to fuel for their own purposes.

Is this really beyond the capacity of all these Ivy League-educated reporters to understand?