The use of "collapse"
I understand Saddam's regime has "collapsed". And his people are, indeed, gone. Why is this not "spin"? Would it not be less of a spin to say that Saddam's forces are in full retreat?
The lack of lawful authority in Baghdad, with overspill of looting and violence into random neighborhoods, sounds like "collapse" of civil authority to me. And guess what the word describing an absence of governmental structures is? It begins with an A...
Regards--
Mary Anne