When the situation in Iraq is deteriorating by the second and you refuse to call it what it is (aka a civil war), what's a desperate President to do? Blame al Qaeda, of course.
However, as Olbermann and NBC's Sr. Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski point out, despite the President's newfound excuse that al Qaeda is to blame, Generals Caldwell, Abizaid and Mapes testified just two weeks ago that al Qaeda's influence in Iraq is negligible in the grand scheme of things.