A war of words over Iraq
There seems to be some disagreement over whether or not Iraq is in the middle of a civil war. I'm not sure I understand why. Perhaps Bush doesn’t have a dictionary. I have one (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary) and here is the definition it gives for civil war:
civil war n : a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country.
Ok, but what is a war:
war vb : to engage in warfare : be in conflict
Seems like a no-brainer to me but who ever said Bush had a brain. You can read more about this below:
A war of words over Iraq
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Sun reporter
Originally published November 28, 2006WASHINGTON // With sectarian violence raging in Iraq and President Bush grasping for options, the question of whether Iraqis are locked in a civil war has taken on new urgency.
The term is fraught with emotional overtones and policy implications, which is why it sparks lively arguments and strong pushback from the White House. Bush vehemently rejects the idea that Iraq is engaged in a civil war, while a growing chorus of scholars and strategists says that is exactly what the staggering civilian death toll and factional strife amount to.
Read entire article online at: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.civilwar28nov28,0,5836509.story?coll=bal-pe-asectionIraqin midst of civil war or not?
CNN's Carol Costello examines whether the Iraq war can be classified as a civil war. (November 28)
Watch video here: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/scp_v3/viewer/index.php?pid=16598&rn=49750&cl=1307036&ch=49799&src=news
Note: Video will show after a brief commerical.
Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War'
U.S. Officials Deny Violence Has Risen to That Level, but ABC News Analysts See a 'Serious Lack of Realism'
By JAKE TAPPER
ABC World NewsBAGHDAD, March 5, 2006 — As Pentagon generals offered optimistic assessments that the sectarian violence in Iraq had dissipated this weekend, other military experts told ABC News that Sunni and Shiite groups in Iraq already are engaged in a civil war, and that the Iraqi government and U.S. military had better accept that fact and adapt accordingly.
"We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest.
"It's our failure to understand reality that has caused us to be late throughout this experience of the last three years in Iraq," added Nash, who is an ABC News consultant.
Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News, "If you talk to U.S. intelligence officers and military people privately, they'd say we've been involved in low level civil war with very slowly increasing intensity since the transfer of power in June 2004."
Read entire article online at: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1689688&page=1Iraqi civil war has already begun, U.S.troops say
By Tom Lasseter
McClatchy Newspapers
Aug. 04, 2006BAGHDAD, Iraq - While American politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of civil war in Iraq, many U.S. officers and enlisted men who patrol Baghdad say it has already begun.
Army troops in and around the capital interviewed in the last week cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is coming undone: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in car bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia death squads have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis; and when night falls, neighborhoods become open battlegrounds.
"There's one street that's the dividing line. They shoot mortars across the line and abduct people back and forth," said 1st Lt. Brian Johnson, a 4th Infantry Division platoon leader from Houston. Johnson, 24, was describing the nightly violence that pits Sunni gunmen from Baghdad's Ghazaliyah neighborhood against Shiite gunmen from the nearby Shula district.
As he spoke, the sights and sounds of battle grew: first, the rat-a-tat-tat of fire from AK-47 assault rifles, then the heavier bursts of PKC machine guns, and finally the booms of mortar rounds crisscrossing the night sky and crashing down onto houses and roads.
The bodies of captured Sunni and Shiite fighters will turn up in the morning, dropped in canals and left on the side of the road.
Read entire article online at: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/iraq/15201701.htm
And this just in:
Powell: 'Face the reality' that conflict is civil war
DUBAI - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday Iraq had descended into civil war and urged world leaders to accept that “reality.”
Powell’s remarks came ahead of a meeting — later postponed — between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Jordanian capital to discuss the security developments in Iraq.
“I would call it a civil war,” Powell told a business forum in the United Arab Emirates. “I have been using it (civil war), because I like to face the reality,” added Powell.Read entire article online at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15954706/
