NYT or The Onion? You Decide

I couldn't even believe this was a real story based on an actual classified military document. Read the abridged version below and you'll see why. (I'm afraid to find out how much time and money the U.S. government spent putting together earth-shattering presentation. And what's up with a one-page slide show?! Isn't that just a slide?)

In Military’s Chart of War, Iraq Is Moving Toward Chaos

WASHINGTON -- A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the U.S. Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict.

A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command is trying to track the trajectory of the war.

The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an "Index of Civil Conflict." It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in February, and tracks a further worsening this month.

In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory.

The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from "peace," an ideal on the far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of the spectrum, a red zone marked "chaos."

The analysis was prepared by the command’s intelligence directorate, which is overseen by Brig. Gen. John M. Custer.

(Read the full story here)