. . . to meet and talk with Col. Ken Allard on the Jack Riccardi show. Col. Allard lives here in San Antonio now and with his move Jack created a one hour segment on his show for Col. Allard and I. The new segment is called The Pen and the Sword and is scheduled to run every Monday between 8:00-9:00pm Central. This evening was the inaugural segment and it was quite fascinating. Not only was it fascinating but rewarding--for all three of us. Col. Allard has a first rate mind and before we knew it our conversation had taken some very enjoyable twists.

Inevitably the discussion turned towards the destruction of the Shi'a shrine and Jack, the host asked me, "are we in a civil war?"

I told him that I'd defer to Col. Allard for a more authoritative take (he was in Iraq two months ago). Knowing a little something about Sunnis and Shi'ites and a little more something about Islamic Shrines, however, I said, "I can't express enough how big a deal this destruction is. It is huge beyond our comprehension."

Col. Allard, grimly agreed. "The reality is that our situation is extremely tenuous at this point."

At this point Jack asked both of us, "if there is a civil war in Iraq, has our mission failed?"

We both agreed, and I added that the current envorinment is much like April 2004 when the Sadr's Mehdi Army was attacking our troops in running gun battles in Baghdad and the Marines were assaulting Fallujah at the same time. Those days were bad. Col. Allard said these days are similar.

Tense days these are. And decisive, no matter whose political spin you're hearing.