Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War' 




Expert on Iraq: 'We're In a Civil War'
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.

  • White House To Silence Media
    The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

    In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases.

  • Kabuki Congress
    Imagine being stopped for speeding and having the local legislature raise the limit so you won't have to pay the fine. It sounds absurd, but it's just what is happening to the 28-year-old law that prohibits the president from spying on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge.

    It's a familiar pattern. President Bush ignores the Constitution and the laws of the land, and the cowardly, rigidly partisan majority in Congress helps him out by rewriting the laws he's broken.

  • Names of the Dead
    The Department of Defense has identified 2,293 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans over the weekend:

    MERCHANT, Christopher S., 32, Specialist, Army National Guard; Hardwick, Vt.; Third Battalion, 172nd Infantry Regiment.

    YOUMANS, Joshua V., 26, Sgt., Army National Guard; Flushing, Mich.; First Battalion, 125th Infantry Regiment.
 

Posted: Mon - March 6, 2006 at 10:06 AM           |

©