As U.S. generals warn of civil war, soldiers in Iraq say it's happening

Minneapolis Star & Sickle ^ | August 6, 2006 | Tom Lasseter

[daler]

BAGHDAD - While U.S. politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of civil war in Iraq, U.S. officers here and troops who patrol Baghdad daily say it has already begun.

U.S. soldiers in and around Baghdad interviewed in the past week cite a long list of evidence that the center of the nation is unraveling: Villages have been abandoned by Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Sunni insurgents have killed thousands of Shiites in bombings and assassinations; Shiite militia have tortured and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Sunnis.

And neighborhoods have become open battlegrounds at night.

"There's one street that's the dividing line. They shoot mortars across the line and abduct people back and forth," said First Lt. Brian Johnson, 24, a Fourth Infantry Division platoon leader from Houston, describing the nightly fights that pit Sunnis from the Ghazaliyah neighborhood against Shiites from the Shula district.

As he spoke, the sights and sounds of battle grew: first, staccato fire from AK-47 assault rifles, then heavier bursts of Russian-made PKC machine guns and finally booms of mortar rounds crisscrossing the night sky and crashing down onto houses and roads.

Bodies of captured Sunni and Shiite fighters will turn up in the morning lying in canals or beside roads.

[daler]

Here you go...the theme for the next big wave of pre-election Bush (GOP) bashing.

The formula: find a couple of malcontents in the military and run with it as if it's concensus.

[daler]

Sorry...forgot the barf alert.

[Minus_The_Bear]

this is what comes from occupying cities instead of straight up carpet bombing.

[oolatec]

Why is the one quoted in the excerpt a malcontent? Do you deny such things are happening in Iraq?

[hosepipe]

[ Minneapolis Star & Sickle ]

LoL...

[claudiustg]

This isn't very convincing without obviously doctored or staged photos, you know.

[Berlin_Freeper]

"There's one street that's the dividing line."...." describing the nightly fights"

That is a gang fight Middle East style, not a civil war.

The treasonous Left Media spend days and weeks asking "hundreds if not thousands" of soldiers for their opinion until they find a few are not thoughtful enough to know what the treasonous intent of the Left Media is, to use their words as definitive without a shred of balance or mention from most all the soldiers who replied it is not a civil war.

Bottom line is, if you have to walk around asking people if it is a civil war, then it most definitely is not a civil war.

When the Left Media report about a civil war or a few Democrats post here about a civil war (and they will), that is just their wishful thinking. Disregard them.

[WOSG]

This is not a balanced report.
Original poster is right - the MSM is gunning for Bush defeat.

see
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678645/posts

[GSlob]

Why "malcontents"? Since a society organized along the sectarian and tribal lines is doomed to violence, the best thing which could happen there is a good civil war in which those afflicted with excessive tribalism and sectarianism reciprocally exterminate one another. May they keep up the good work.

[daler]

Can you confirm it?

[daler]

Marvin Gaye may have had his problems, but he was a great singer IMO.

One of my fondest memories of Mr Gaye is his lyric: "Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear..."

[IrishRainy]

You really should talk to Allegra about this. She's actually there - and she vehemently denies a civil war is taking place.

[jonrick46]

This Sunday's (Aug. 6th '06) we say Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NEB), and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CON), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, talk about the "civil war" in Iran.

Sen Hagel: "There are no good options . . . let me ask the question, and I hope the President and his people are starting to ask themselves this question, that what is--wat is the alternative? Are we going to put our troops in the middle of a civil war? Who are we going to fight? This will be slaughter of immense proportions. The American people will not put up with it, the leadership in Congress will not put up with it. I hope this Administration has got a way out of this . . . we cannot put American troops and ask them to do the things that we're asking them to do in the middle of a civil war, and that's where it is headed."

Sen. Dodd: "Well, I'd--I'd say amen to what Chuck Hagel has said here.

My comment: The insurgents from Iran and Syria have inflamed this "civil war." The tactic to touch off a civil war has been in operation from the very start. This is the same tactic the Communists tried to start a race war in the United States in the sixties. It did not work because good people sat down and worked out their differences. It takes leadership and the Iraqi poeple will have to find the leadership it will take to cool off the religious strife.

[Allegra]

Do you deny such things are happening in Iraq?

YES.

[Allegra]

While U.S. politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of strongly desire a civil war in Iraq,...

[Southack]

"Why is the one quoted in the excerpt a malcontent? Do you deny such things are happening in Iraq?"

108 people are shot dead each night...in Rio de Janiero.

In all of Iraq, on average, 76 insurgents and 22 civilians and/or good guys are killed each day from all sources (e.g. shot, blown up, suicide, auto accidents, disease, heat stroke, etc.).

Yet Rio is a peaceful beach paradise according to the news media and left-wingers everywhere, while Iraq is chaotic "civil war."

It's completely bogus.

Iraq has a very low lethality rate for a 3rd world nation. Haiti, Brazil, and many African nations can only dream of having their death tolls drop to Iraqi levels.

[Just A Nobody]

In all of Iraq, on average, 76 insurgents and 22 civilians and/or good guys are killed each day from all sources (e.g. shot, blown up, suicide, auto accidents, disease, heat stroke, etc.).

So that's where the 100/day is coming from...disease, heat stroke, every day run of the mill auto accidents?

I got into an argument with a poster yesterday and he/she/it said I was using bogus numbers because they came from icasualties, but never would say where his numbers came from and what they included. Do you have a source I could look up and go back to finish the argument with?

[muawiyah]

And Iraq wasn't a third-world nation until Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist gang took over.

[dirtbiker]

While U.S. politicians and generals in Washington debate the possibility of civil war in Iraq, U.S. officers here and troops who patrol Baghdad daily say it has already begun.

I think Darwin referred to this as "natural selection". I say let them go for it.

Fewer we'll have to kill later...

[Raycpa]

Book 041, Number 6902:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) many ahadith and one of them was this: The last Hour will not come until the two parties (of Muslims) confront each other and there is a large-scale massacre amongst them and the claim of both of them is the same.