Civil War Looms With 68 Killed in Baghdad

[Bronco_Beerslug]

This is the main reasont we need to leave ASAP. We cannot police a civil war!!!!!

------------------------------------------------------
Civil War Looms With 68 Killed in Baghdad
By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunnis and Shiites traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly religious targets in Baghdad well into the night Tuesday, killing at least 68 people a day after authorities lifted a curfew that had briefly calmed a series of sectarian reprisal attacks.

At least six of Tuesday's attacks hit clearly religious targets, concluding with a car bombing after sundown at the Shiite Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood that killed 23 and wounded 55. A separate suicide bombing killed 23 people at an east Baghdad gas station, where people had lined up to buy kerosine.

In addition to those known to have been killed Tuesday, police found nine more bullet-riddled bodies, including a Sunni Muslim tribal sheik, off a road southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear when they died.

The surge of violence deepened the trauma of residents already shaken by fears the country was teetering on the brink of sectarian civil war, threatened talks among Iraqi politicians struggling to form a government and raised questions about U.S. plans to begin drawing down troop strength this summer.

Iraq began to tilt seriously toward outright civil war after the Feb. 22 bombing of the important Shiite Askariya shrine in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

President Bush decried the latest surge in sectarian violence Tuesday and said that for Iraqis "the choice is chaos or unity."

In congressional testimony, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said a civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's Sunni and Shiite powers against one another.
(CONTINUED)
http://tinyurl.com/gqqft

[RunByDesign]

Where are the roses? Where are the open arms?

I don't get it.

[DBruleU]

Yes! We need to leave ASAP! BB said it here first folks. Lets all listen to him...his all-knowing-loves-to-post-new-crap-everyday.

I think these are signs that they are on their last legs. Civil war is all they have. It may not be great, but they dont have the means to do the small stuff anymore...need to turn people on themsleves. And you being the great liberal mind, thinks we need to leave now....and I'm guessing its just what they want you to think and do. Way to go BB! You have played right into the insurgents hands. Congrats my now-getting-old-with-all-your-crap-you-post friend.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Yes! We need to leave ASAP! BB said it here first folks. Lets all listen to him...his all-knowing-loves-to-post-new-crap-everyday.

I think these are signs that they are on their last legs. Civil war is all they have. It may not be great, but they dont have the means to do the small stuff anymore...need to turn people on themsleves. And you being the great liberal mind, thinks we need to leave now....and I'm guessing its just what they want you to think and do. Way to go BB! You have played right into the insurgents hands. Congrats my now-getting-old-with-all-your-crap-you-post friend.

you cant be serious ? a Cival war is pretty big . I want it cause it will get us out of there , but to think Cival war is the last straw , is out there man ........ Like Cheney said last year , the insurgency is ints final throes , still going on .... grew into a cival war , Iwouldnt call that progress

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

you cant be serious ? a Cival war is pretty big . I want it cause it will get us out of there , but to think Cival war is the last straw , is out there man ........ Like Cheney said last year , the insurgency is ints final throes , still going on .... grew into a cival war , Iwouldnt call that progress

Its spelled Civil. For crying out loud, I never say anything, but reading some of your stuff hurts my eyes.

Anyways, I was serious. So deal with it.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Its spelled Civil. For crying out loud, I never say anything, but reading some of your stuff hurts my eyes.

Anyways, I was serious. So deal with it.

Need tissue ? . if you are serious you need to drop out of school , you are stealing from the taxpayers son

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

Need tissue ? . if you are serious you need to drop out of school , you are stealing from the taxpayers son

You mean like you did...like 30 years ago. YOU are the one stealing from the tax payers. Welfare is great, huh?

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

You mean like you did...like 30 years ago. YOU are the one stealing from the tax payers. Welfare is great, huh?

the only difference son is I was never on Welfare , you pulled that out of your áss , but you Kiddo are sponging off of other people right now .......

[Spider]

A college boy telling everyone how it is .......... He will find out about the real world , when he leaves his Sheltered life and starts working for a livin

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

the only difference son is I was never on Welfare , you pulled that out of your áss , but you Kiddo are sponging off of other people right now .......

I am...really? Like how? If you are referring to a scholarship...then you are sorely mistaken. I worked hard for that scholarship.

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

A college boy telling everyone how it is .......... He will find out about the real world , when he leaves his Sheltered life and starts working for a livin

Sorry spider. I have been working for a living the last year. And..my last commish would make you jealous of a college education. I mean HS education....actually both.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Sorry spider. I have been working for a living the last year. And..my last commish would make you jealous of a college education. I mean HS education....actually both.

Gee you made enough to pay mommie and Daddy rent ......... you must be so proud

[Antilles]

Am I the only one who feels that if civil war breaks out it is largely our fault and therefore our responsibility to help try to clean it up?

[Spider]

Originally Posted by Antilles

Am I the only one who feels that if civil war breaks out it is largely our fault and therefore our responsibility to help try to clean it up?

How? we have a different agenda ,we want to spread freedom , they dont want it , we have been trying to nation build before civil war.........screwed the pooch , dropped the ball , Fúcked up...........

[Rigs11]

Wasn't the idiot in the white house warned that this would probably happen if he went into Iraq?

Negroponte fears wider Islamic conflict
Iraq civil war could spark violence throughout region, intel chief tells panel

WASHINGTON - A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region’s rival Islamic sects against each another, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday.

“If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country ... this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world,” Negroponte said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.

Negroponte served as U.S. ambassador to Baghdad before taking over as the nation’s top intelligence official last April.

Iraqis have faced a chain of attacks and reprisals since bombs destroyed the gold dome of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra last week. Hundreds, if not thousands, have died, including more than 65 who were killed Tuesday by suicide attackers, car bombers and insurgents firing mortars.

President Bush condemned the surge in violence and said Iraqis must make a choice between “a free society or a society dictated ... by evil people who will kill innocents.” Later, in an interview with ABC News’ “World News Tonight,” he said he did not believe the escalation of civil unrest would lead to a general civil war.

War would be ‘serious setback’
Negroponte tried to focus on progress in Iraq, but he acknowledged a civil war would be a “serious setback” to the global war on terrorism.

“The consequences for the people of Iraq would be catastrophic,” he said. “Clearly, it would seriously jeopardize the democratic political process on which they are presently embarked. And one can only begin to imagine what the political outcomes would be.”

Saudi Arabia and Jordan could support Iraq’s Sunnis, Negroponte said. And Iran, run by a Shiite Islamic theocracy, “has already got quite close ties with some of the extremist elements” inside Iraq, he added.

While Iraq’s neighbors “initially might be reluctant” to get involved in a broader Sunni-Shiite conflict, “that might well be a temptation,” Negroponte said.

Still, he told senators he is seeing progress in the overall political and security situation in Iraq. “And if we continue to make that kind of progress, yes, we can win in Iraq,” he said.

Democrats noted that Negroponte wouldn’t go quite as far as Bush did in his January State of the Union address. “We are winning,” Bush said then.

James Jeffrey, the State Department coordinator for Iraq, told reporters Tuesday that Iraqi security forces have managed to establish a normal and calm situation — “by Iraq standards.” The level of violence, he said, was about the same as before the shrine bombing.

Bleak outlook for Afghanistan
At the Senate hearing, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, painted a similarly stark picture of Afghanistan.

While the government has made progress in disarming private militias, Maples said, his agency estimates that violence from the Taliban and other anti-coalition groups in Afghanistan increased 20 percent last year.

“Insurgents now represent a greater threat to the expansion of Afghan government authority than at any point since late 2001, and will be active this spring,” Maples said in his written statement.

Afghan insurgents increased their suicide attacks almost fourfold and more than doubled their use of improvised explosive devices, he said.

Also at the hearing:

* Negroponte would not provide an updated assessment of the number of nuclear weapons believed to be in North Korea’s arsenal, although a former DIA head has previously said Pyongyang has one or two. “We assess that they probably have nuclear weapons, as they claim that they do, but we don’t know for a fact that they’ve got such weapons,” Negroponte said. To provide a number “would merely be an extrapolation or a speculation on our part.”
* Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was critical of the Bush administration’s reliance on the six-party talks aimed at disarming North Korea. “I worry that the six-party talks have really devolved into the Chinese talks, and the Chinese have their own agenda,” she said. “I’m not sure that the six-party talks is the only route we should be following.”
* On Venezuela, Negroponte said U.S. intelligence expects President Hugo Chavez to deepen his relationship with Cuban President Fidel Castro and “seek closer economic, military and diplomatic ties with Iran and North Korea.” Negroponte said the U.S. is concerned about Chavez’s arms purchases, using profits from oil production. “I would say that it’s clear that he is spending hundreds of millions, if not more, for his very extravagant foreign policy” at the expense of the impoverished Venezuelan population, he said.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11610145/

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Sorry spider. I have been working for a living the last year. And..my last commish would make you jealous of a college education. I mean HS education....actually both.

.......making all that money and still using a scholarship ..........why?

[Antilles]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

How? we have a different agenda ,we want to spread freedom , they dont want it , we have been trying to nation build before civil war.........screwed the pooch , dropped the ball , Fúcked up...........

I completely agree with you. The whole Iraq operation has been a debacle from start to finish. We went in under dubious (at best) justification and, as it turns out, never should have been there in the first place. I guess I have two concerns assuming civil war breaks out: 1) It seems irresponsible to me to set the stage for civil war and then run out the back door when the civil war errupts. 2) Notwithstanding any sort of "you made your bed now lie in it" moral position, IMO if we cut and run now, it has the potential to turn IRAQ into an even more fertile breading ground for terror. Just think about all the anger, justified or not, that would create. Think of all the lost lives that will result from civil war and which nation (us) will catch the bulk of the blame. I guess my point is, in a battle for the hearts and minds of a people (one that I would prefer we weren't in to begin with), we can't afford to blink when the cost to us starts to rise because those on the ground have already paid an even greater cost and won't soon forget being abandoned.

Honestly, I believe the Iraq war is the single worst policy decision of my lifetime. The only way I see to redeem that failure is to leave Iraq in a better position than where we found it.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by Antilles

I completely agree with you. The whole Iraq operation has been a debacle from start to finish. We went in under dubious (at best) justification and, as it turns out, never should have been there in the first place. I guess my concerns assuming civil war breaks out are twofold: 1) It seems irresponsible to me to set the stage for civil war and then run out the back door when the civil war errupts. 2) Notwithstanding any sort of "you made your bed now lie in it" moral position, IMO if we cut and run now, it has the potential to turn IRAQ into an even more fertile breading ground for terror. Just think about all the anger, justified or not, that would create. Think of all the lost lives that will result from civil war and which nation (us) will catch the bulk of the blame. I guess my point is, in a battle for the hearts and minds of a people (one that I would prefer we weren't in to begin with), we can't afford to blink when the cost to us starts to rise because those on the ground have already paid an even greater cost and won't soon forget being abandoned.

Honestly, I believe the Iraq war is the single worst policy decision of my lifetime. The only way I see to redeem that failure is to leave Iraq in a better position than where we found it.

that would be the way it should be done ............what we have to worry about is the appearnce of us taking a side in this , that could cause wide spread fighting throught out the middle east ........if we enforce martial law , then it looks as if we just took over the country ..........
we are between Araq and a hard place ..........
But seriously the failure to capture Bin Ladin , is the biggest screw up ever .....to big of a rush to get into Iraq ..........

[Antilles]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

]But seriously the failure to capture Bin Ladin , is the biggest screw up ever .....to big of a rush to get into Iraq ..........

Two sides of the same coin, eh?

[Spider]

Originally Posted by Antilles

Two sides of the same coin, eh?

I think so .........

[baja]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

Yes! We need to leave ASAP! BB said it here first folks. Lets all listen to him...his all-knowing-loves-to-post-new-crap-everyday.

I think these are signs that they are on their last legs. Civil war is all they have. It may not be great, but they dont have the means to do the small stuff anymore...need to turn people on themsleves. And you being the great liberal mind, thinks we need to leave now....and I'm guessing its just what they want you to think and do. Way to go BB! You have played right into the insurgents hands. Congrats my now-getting-old-with-all-your-crap-you-post friend.

Box up your computer and return it to the manufacturer immediately you are too stupid to use it.

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

.......making all that money and still using a scholarship ..........why?

So you'd rather spend $1,000's of extra dollars than get it free and have extra cash to spend on toy's that I certainly don't need, but love to have.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by DBruleU

So you'd rather spend $1,000's of extra dollars than get it free and have extra cash to spend on toy's that I certainly don't need, but love to have.

see thats the problem with you kids , it isnt free , it is costing someone somewhere ,when you enter the real world , you will see there is no free lunch .........

[Spider]

some where in America there is single mom that would love to get into school and better her self , to make a better life for her kid , meanwhile boobs like you milk the system thinking it is free ...........

[DBruleU]

Originally Posted by §Pide®

see thats the problem with you kids , it isnt free , it is costing someone somewhere ,when you enter the real world , you will see there is no free lunch .........

What the h*** are you talking about? Schools all over the world offer these sort of things to people. You act like my whole entire schooling is free. When its not even close to being free. I'm already paying over $8,000 a year to go, and next year it may be over $30,000, as I'm looking at going to a private university here in Denver. I'll give you 1 guess as to which school that is. It's no "free lunch" there, as you so eloquently put it.

It was offered to me as a way to get me to join their orginization. I'm sure as heck not going to turn down an opportunity to get a reduced pay in my education. And neither would anyone else on this board.