U.S. general warns that Iraq is close to dissolving into civil war

[Rose Siding]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A top-ranked U.S. military officer in Iraq said Wednesday that the United States thought that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was running out of time to prevent Iraq from dissolving into outright civil war.


"We have to fix this militia issue. We can't have armed militias competing with Iraq's security forces. But I have to trust the prime minister to decide when it is that we do that," said Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the second-highest-ranking American military official in Baghdad.


Chiarelli's comments to a gathering of reporters were a part of a growing chorus of concerns from U.S. political and military leaders about the Iraqi government's ability and willingness to tackle corruption and militia-run death squads. They suggest that top American leaders are growing frustrated with the pace of reforms and may even be starting to argue for eventual U.S. withdrawal.


Throughout the month, senior military officials - almost always speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject - have expressed frustration with the government, saying corruption and rogue militias backed by rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr are rampant. They've complained of ministers using their offices to fill the coffers of their political parties and of government workers using their jobs to attack rival sects. They said the Iraqi government turned a blind eye, embracing a sectarian winner-take-all approach to governance.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15623156.htm

[NOLADEM]

1. SO damn sick of this

Riddle me this, batman....EXACTLY what criteria are you using to say that Iraq is not yet in civil war?

The idiots in charge say it isn't civil war yet, so WHAT EXACTLY are we looking for to know they are in a Civil War?

Blue and Grey uniforms being handed out?

An Emancipation Proclamation?

Are we waiting for the Sunnis to fly the Stars and Bars?


I am so sick of these motherfuckers claiming that Iraq is not in a Civil War, and NO ONE asking them what they are waiting for to call it so.

[sweetheart]

3. The guys in the uniforms are fighting for the confederates

The guys without uniforms are fighting for freedom.

Our civil war boiled over in to iraq, so of course there's a civil war there, we haven't left yet.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. The Iraqi Interior ministry death squads are fighting for freedom?

This is news to me.

[sweetheart]

6. civil wars are very confusing

Everybody makes it up to sound like they're not uncivil, and that
the 'other guy' is doing the death squads thing... but we know
all too well, given the torture and war crimes that have come out,
that nobody in this civil war is a saint.

Then similarly stateside, was fighting for the confederacy a crime,
or just a thing people did because it was the place they lived.

[OhioChick]

2. The headline has me

just sitting here shaking my head. "Iraq is close to dissolving into civil war."

[Javaman]

5. Either the water is boiling or not. The water has been boiling for a long

time.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I hope he tells the president. Not that he would listen. nt

[Megahurtz]

8. This War is SO depressing.

And this fucked-up Administration is so depressing.
I am so sick of this shit. This Country is in a hole.

[DrBloodmoney]

9. It already is a civil war

I get the feeling that these bastards are waiting for Matthew Brady and President Lincoln to show up before they declare that it is a civil war. When there's smoke...