On the Front Lines, They Have Little Doubt of an Iraqi Civil War

On Friday, politicians and generals debated the possibility of a civil war in the formerly secular and stable Iraq. Officers and their troops who patrol Baghdad on a daily basis say it is underway. Troops were interviewed in and around Baghdad last week, and those troops interviewed offered the following evidence that the country is imploding from the center:

• Abandoned Villages. Both Sunni and Shia have fled the countryside.
• Sectarian Violence. Sunni militias have killed thousands of Shia (mostly civilians) in car bombings and assassinations.
• Likewise, Shia death squads have killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of Sunni's. Most have been tortured and then shot execution style.
• Under cover of darkness, neighborhoods erupt into battlegrounds on a nightly basis.

The only way the United States can snatch a shred of victory from the jaws of defeat is if two things happen. First the native security forces must become more competent. Second, Iraqi leaders - and here I mean religious leaders - must convince their factions to lay down their weapons.

Neither of these necessary things is happening. Violence instead is increasing. And the US military finds itself changing, involuntarily, from a force that initiates action to a force that merely reacts, due in great part to a lack of planning, forsight, and leadership at the top. (Don't fault the troops in the field or any officer below the rank of Lt. Colonel. Nobody below that rank is making decisions.)

On Thursday, General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General John Abazaid, the senior officer in Iraq, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that they had never seen the violence this bad, and they believed that Iraq is, if not in the grip of civil war, precipitously close. Senator McCain (Whose 18 year old son just joined the Marines) compared our effors in Iraq to a game of "Whack-a-Mole."

That is the best analogy I have heard yet.