Gloom descends on Iraqi leaders as civil war looms

[Barrett808]

Iraqi leaders have all but given up on holding the country together and, just two months after forming a national unity government, talk in private of "black days" of civil war ahead.

Signalling a dramatic abandonment of the US-backed project for Iraq, there is even talk among them of pre-empting the worst bloodshed by agreeing to an east-west division of Baghdad into Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim zones, senior officials told Reuters.

Tens of thousands have already fled homes on either side.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," one senior government official said -- anonymously because the coalition under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to the US-sponsored constitution that preserves Iraq's unity.

One highly placed source even spoke of busying himself on government projects, despite a sense of their futility, only as a way to fight his growing depression over his nation's future.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," the senior official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," he said. "We are extremely worried."

(more)

http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/07/22/d607221311124.htm

[JackDragna]

1. Civil war looms?

It's been there for a while now. Those who pay attention and don't buy what the media says have known this for a long time.

[gratuitous]

2. "Iraq as a political project is finished"

Does that mean we can bring the troops home, or haven't they killed enough people yet? Or are we waiting for number 3,000 to come home in a body bag? Anybody want to be the last one to die for this "political project"?

[daleo]

13. The troops will be needed against Iran soon

The fact that Iraq is a full-scale disaster will not deter the neo-cons from Plan B.

[KansDem]

30. "...haven't they killed enough people yet?"

Nahhh, there are still plenty of 14-year-old Iraqi girls and Iraqi males of military age left. Also, where would our future white-supremacist gang members train if not in Iraq?

:sarcasm:, if you didn't already know

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. By the time the dust settles on the Israel thing the press will realize

that Iraq is in a full blown civil war.

[TheCowsCameHome]

5. That should be the headline on every paper in the country.

But now all eyes are on Israel.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

15. Is that why the media is totally focused on Lebanon?

The media has been prevented by bush from reporting Iraq is in a civil war & the whole place is a total disaster?

In a couple of weeks, bush simply blames his failure in Iraq on Hezbollah & Iran.

[krkaufman]

21. Now you have me wondering....

.... whether the Bush Admin couldn't possibly be behind the "disproportionate response" of Israel, looking for some cover as Iraq crosses the threshold into an open civil war.

[SquireJons]

26. you're on to something here...

I doubt that they directly planned Israels military excursions, but I'm sure that they encouraged it with promises of intelligence, logistics, and arms supplies. Condi has already indicated that the U.S. does not want an end to the blood shed until Hezbollah has been crushed. To hell with Lebanon and it's people. Israel doesn't need to be encouraged to flex it's muscles, all it needs is a reassurance that it will be able to replenish supplies that are exhausted. The neocons have factored this into their own plans, and Rove is factoring it into his strategy for the fall elections. What they will likely discover is that once the tiger is out of the bag, it's hard to predict who will be eaten.

[krkaufman]

34. Yep, I think you're right.

This is the beginning of the midterm war, that we'd feared would be used to control the voters.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Don't tell Bush and Rumsfeld - they don't want to hear it.

Because they are living in fantasyland.

[rubberducky]

6. Can you even imagine what it is like living there??

Wonder if many of the Iraqis wish that we had never "liberated" them. What is ever to happen with these people??What a sad situation. My heart aches for the people of the ME, because of the stupidity of the leadership in Wash..

[ckramer]

7. Civil war? Haha! Go for it so that Americans don't have to do the

Killings of Iraqis.

How can Bush sleep at night knowing his beautiful cowboy war killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis?

[LibDemAlways]

8. Chimpy sleeps very well knowing that

Halliburton and a whole bunch of defense contractors are profitting handsomely. You could line up the corpse of every person on both sides who's died in this thing, and it wouldn't make an impact on him - other than to think that undertakers and grave diggers owe him one.

[krkaufman]

22. Exactly. The guy is a sociopath, so he sleeps just fine.

His only worries are keeping to his workout schedule, and when he gets to cut the pig.

[Recursion]

12. How do they sleep at night?

On a big, big pile of money.

[Barrett808]

14. Quite well, with the help of Ambien

"Wonderful stuff," according to Colin Powell.

[pushycat]

20. Is that the same drug Patrick Kennedy used? Coincidence again.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. Baghdad will have 4 zones

Shia
Sunni
Green and Embassy
open, unrestricted war zone

[Barkley]

23. ... and Iraq will have 3 zones

regular
plus and
Premium

[ChairmanAgnostic]

27. bravo.

I just LOVE how oil sales have paid for Bush's little Iraqi vacation.

[rodeodance]

10. umm. it is the weekend.

[bemildred]

11. Mission accomplished!

[IndianaGreen]

16. They should dip their fingers in purple ink and get a group portrait

to make gullible Americans feel better about themselves. The purple fingers won't bring any comfort to Iraqi leaders, but who cares about this gang of criminals and collaborators?

[pscot]

17. How odd

My congressman, Rick Larsen, who is a sort of Democrat, recently got back from from a bi-partisan fact finding trip to Bagdad (he was the only Democrat). He told the local press that he was optimistic, based on what he had seen. He seemed to think that things were progressing according to the administration plan. Could he have been mistaken? How is it possible that things were going so well just a week or so ago, and now the situation is so bleak? Maybe it's the company he keeps. Maybe he's just an idiot.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Maybe he just stayed in the Green Zone and Camp Victory

and he relied on the Pentagon's PowerPoint presentation as his only source of information.

[Barrett808]

24. Even stranger is how the Repubs have come back much more pessimistic

What's up with that?

[Mandate My Ass]

29. What's up with that? Midterms.

They'll go right back to "stay the course" after November.

[Barrett808]

31. So this is just a "contrast effect", as in advertising

To different themselves from "Brand W" Republicans.

[daleo]

25. It sounds like he went for a swim in a vat of kool-aid. n/t

[Roy]

38. Maybe he knows what the "REAL" administration plan is????

N/T

[Imagevision]

18. Bush is breathing easier since Israel took the spotlite Iraq Civil war

now I know why Bush doesn't want to tell Israel to lighten up, Iraq's leaders are getting bent out of shape as civil war keeps growing and out of control with each passing week.

[54anickel]

28. link broken - new one here, with a kick

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21908240.htm

[Barrett808]

32. Thanks.

Don't know what happened over at The Daily Star.

[reprobate]

33. And this makes those of us who predicted civil war before the invasion

....what....psychic? Or just intelligent?

[BenDavid]

35. If any on the right say

there is no civil unrest or this is leading into a civil war then take a look at this and pas it on to them:

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths

Jul-06 942
Jun-06 870
May-06 1119
Apr-06 1010
Mar-06 1092
Feb-06 846
Jan-06 779

Enough said!

[michaelpush]

36. Predicted

As predicted! You cant change a thousand years of ethnic/religious battle in a few months. This was predicted before the war even started, and, here we are! As in our civil war, the locals are better at killing each other than any outside influence! We (US govt) stick our nose into places we do not belong, and, just mess it up worse than what it was before. We are now in the "Imperialistic stage" of our United States, which is one step away from our "collapse" as a nation. We will soon be a "third world" country. The new power will be the EU, which already is economically more sound than the US. What other nations in the past has used the Eagle as their "symbol"? Interesting?

[Barrett808]

37. Welcome to DU, michaelpush!

:hi: