Daniel P.B.Smith wrote:

For example, "some people regard the situation in Iraq as a guerrilla war" can be replaced with "Army Gen. John P. Abizaid said that forces in Iraq were 'conducting what I would describe as a classical guerrilla-type campaign against us.'"

Being so specific doesn't work in a lead paragraph and different high-ranking people have a multitude of POVs that are very often not representative of the population in general.

-- mav