BRITAIN & US: IRAQI CIVIL WAR UPS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

“A ‘low-intensity civil war and de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to stable democracy,’” per William Patey, the British ambassador who left his post in Baghdad last week.

“The Jaish al-Mahdi (the Mahdi Army) Shia militia, which has been blamed for many of the sectarian killings in Iraq, must be stopped from becoming a ‘state within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon,’” according to AP’s Hamida Ghafour.
“Two of the highest-ranking U.S. commanders echoed Mr. Patey’s remarks yesterday.

“General John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, told Congress that Iraq ‘could move towards civil war. I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I have seen it,’ he told the Senate armed services committee yesterday.

“Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the panel, ‘We do have the possibility of that devolving into civil war. Shiite and Sunni are going to have to love their children more than they hate each other.’

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