Of course the sectarian violence has a political component. What is lacking in the context of the traditional civil war is the political factions engaging the government troops in a fight for control. Al Qaeda's objective appears to be to create a chaotic situation where Taliban type control would be embraced. Their media strategy appears to be directed toward creating the perception of chaos. The US media appears to be compliantly going along with this strategy, and the NBC decision on semantics certainly helps the enemy achieve that objective.

The media also does not recognize how it has been responsible for much of the violence against non combatants. These are mainly media events and photo ops used in the campaign to create the perception of chaos. If the media ignored them, they would be wholly militarily insignificant. By following the enemy's script they are promoting the killing of innocents.