| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
14 Jan 2004 06:52:50 AM |
| Object: |
Newsweek: Civil War in Iraq is Inevitable |
From NEWSWEEK, Jan. 19 issue
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3927768&p1=01%7C%7C%7C%7C003
Refereeing in Hell
GIs are dying.
Rival factions are turning on each other.
After freeing Iraq, can we keep it from coming apart?
By Babak Dehghanpisheh
NewsweekJan. 19 issue -
The explosion gouged a crater in the pavement three feet deep and
three feet across.
The bomb, rigged from a gas cylinder attached to a bicycle, detonated
at 1:45 in the afternoon, just as worshipers were leaving after Friday
prayers at a Shiite mosque in Baquba, roughly 40 miles north of
Baghdad.
At least four people died and 32 were injured, police told NEWSWEEK.
At the weekend the bomber had not been identified, but townspeople
assume he was looking to spread distrust and anger between the Shiites
and their predominantly Sunni neighbors.
Police officials say the day's carnage could have been even worse if
they hadn't found and defused a second bomb at another Shiite mosque a
few miles away.
The sneak attacks keep coming--against both Iraqi civilians and
Coalition forces.
Last week's deadliest incident was the crash of a U.S. medical
helicopter near Fallujah, killing all nine aboard.
Witnesses said the Black Hawk was brought down by ground fire.
Military spokesmen said an investigation was underway.
Tuesday marks one month to the day of the capture of Saddam Hussein,
humiliated and feeble, and Bush aides insist these are the death
throes of the insurgency.
And after more than 200 U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi
Freedom, one more tragic attack can hardly alter the Pentagon's plans.
Coalition control over Iraq's destiny--and its fractious ethnic and
religious factions--is scheduled to end in less than six months, when
the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) transfers power to an
elected Iraqi leadership and disbands.
That thought scares Americans and Iraqis alike.
Even if the transfer of authority allows GIs to step back from the
front lines, deadly rivalries between Iraqis could make last week's
bloodshed look like national unity.
And an election-year U.S. troop drawdown is all but impossible.
_____________________________________________________
Welcome to the Bush-created quagmire.
Harry
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