\jeff{krimmel}

An Iraqi Civil War

While this assessment by The New York Times of the state of post-Saddam Iraq is bleaker than most, it certainly raises some seemingly plausible scenarios that are downright scary. From the article,

From the moment American troops crossed the border 28 months ago, the specter hanging over the American enterprise here has been that Iraq, freed from Mr. Hussein’s tyranny, might prove to be so fractured - by politics and religion, by culture and geography, and by the suspicion and enmity sown by Mr. Hussein’s years of repression - that it would spiral inexorably into civil war.

…

Now, events are pointing more than ever to the possibility that the nightmare could come true.

…

The past 10 days have seen such a quickening of these killings, particularly by the insurgents, that many Iraqis are saying that the civil war has already begun.

Not good news, folks. Not good news at all. And with plans to start drawing down troop levels just before next year’s midterm elections, we may be handing this mess back to the Iraqis sooner rather than later. Civil war or not.