Will Iraq Follow Lebanon's Path to War?

[Eugene]

Will Iraq Follow Lebanon's Path to War?


Wednesday April 12, 2006 8:31 PM

AP Photo BEI102

By SAM F. GHATTAS

Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - It started gradually - an assassination, then a bus ambush.
Slowly, gunmen took to the streets and sporadic fighting erupted.

<snip>

For many months starting in the spring of 1975, the citizens of Beirut did not know
for sure if they were living through a civil war or just something that was awful
but would - they hoped - end soon. But then the government split. The army disintegrated,
businesses were looted and hotels sacked. Armed militias took over.

<snip>

These days, many are harkening back to that time - in worry - wondering if Iraq and
specifically Baghdad might not be headed for much of the same. On Iraqi TV, government-
sponsored ads show brutal images of past civil wars in Lebanon, and Bosnia and Rwanda, too,
warning: "We don't want to be next."

For now, it's an unanswerable question. No one knows if Baghdad will continue falling ever-more
into the sectarian violence that has broken out, or recover and move toward peace.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5751397,00.html