SF Chron: Iraq - Civil War is a Reality Experts Say

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/12/MNG9BHMUG81.DTL

Heavily armed private militias routinely clash; suicide bombers kill civilians every day; each side sets fire to the other's mosques, expels families from their homes, and slaughters each other; and the central government seems powerless to stop the violence.

The latest upsurge in Iraqi bloodshed, the conventional wisdom goes, has pushed the country to "the brink" of civil war. Testifying before Congress on Thursday, Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, said as much when he stated that "sectarian violence is a greater concern for us security-wise right now than the insurgency."

But to many analysts, Iraq is already immersed in a civil war. Some point to the hypothetical definition of a civil war recently offered by National Director of Intelligence John Negroponte as "a complete loss of central government security control, the disintegration or deterioration of the security forces of the country."

"In academic terms, this is a civil war, and it's not even a small one," said Larry Diamond, a former consultant to the provisional authority in Baghdad who is now critical of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.

[Skittles]

1. when will they just f***ing say IT IS CIVIL WAR

WHEN ?

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. "Let freedom reign!"