Envoy Warns of Possible Civil War in Iraq(possible?)

[RedEarth]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned in an interview broadcast Friday that Iraq faces the possibility of sectarian civil war if efforts to build a national unity government do not succeed. He said such a conflict could affect the entire Middle East.

Khalilzad told the British Broadcasting Corp. that political contacts among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders were improving, but that within the general population, "polarization along sectarian lines" was intensifying - in part due to the role of armed militias.

Khalilzad warned that "a sectarian war in Iraq" could draw in neighboring countries, "affecting the entire region."

"That's a possibility if we don't do everything we can to make this country work," Khalilzad said. "What's happening here has huge implications for the region and the world."

He said the best way to prevent such a conflict was to form a government including representatives of all groups. That effort has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite candidate to lead the government, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060407/D8GR7FP89.html

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. May 15, 2006

Give them a deadline.

[DainBramaged]

2. "Possible"? What planet did this guy come from?

Hundreds dead every day isn't a civil war?

[Javaman]

3. When is a civil war not a civil war?

When it's actually civil. Nothing about Iraq is civil.

the civil war began the moment the u.s. army set foot in Iraq.

[sandnsea]

5. It started long before that

The US didn't cause the strife between the sects in Iraq. We just removed the lid that was keeping the kettle from boiling over.

[C_U_L8R]

4. Hello ???

Knock knock
Anybody home ???
There a civil war going on.
Hello ?????

[karynnj]

6. Khalilzad is almost the only one there - that almost everyone praises

Including people such as Kerry and the other Democrats who've been to Iraq.

[NYC]

10. Khalilzad and Unocal.

{Karzai and}Khalilzad are old Unocal hands who are now in place to work for global capital in general, if not Unocal in particular. In the mid-1990s, Khalilzad worked as a consultant for the Cambridge Energy Research Associates and he conducted a risk assessment of an Afghan pipeline for Unocal under this auspices. While on retainer from CERAs and Unocal, Khalilzad defended the Taliban in the Washington Post (October 1996),

"The Taliban does not practice the anti-US style of fundamentalism practiced in Iran." The next year, he entertained Unocal's Taliban guests ("Four years ago," the Post reported in November of 2001, "at a luxury Houston hotel, oil company adviser Zalmay Khalilzad was chatting pleasantly over dinner with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban regime about their shared enthusiasm for a proposed multi-billion dollar pipeline deal").

Edit:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-10/30prashad.cfm

[karynnj]

11. Thanks that is interesting - and stuff I didn't know

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. 3 state solution.

Everything else will ultimately fail.

[NYC]

8. Words are sliding.

First, we were hearing about sectarian violence.

Now, Mr. Unocal said:
...Iraq faces the possibility of sectarian civil war...

Next, we'll have civil war.

[pinniped]

9. Ya, it ain't a civil war until the Merkan morans say it is.

All the warring factions are waiting for the official word to begin.

[the_dude_abides]

12. move along..nothing to see here...

America..you are free to do as we say..you are free to do as we say..