pinions of buddy don: taint no civil war!

taint no civil war over thar in iraq accordin to our presdint. whenever elizabeth vargas ast im about his plan fer ifn thay wuz to be a civil war, he sed he dint accept the premiss that thay could be a civil war. so i reckun that mint he dint have to make no plan?

so taint no civil war! Forty die in Baghdad car bombings: police:

At least 40 people were killed and 95 wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two markets in Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City on Sunday, police said.

It was one of the worst days of violence in the capital in recent months.

taint no civil war! After Four Years, Iraq Withdrawal Elusive:

Words like "victory" and "mission accomplished" aren't heard much anymore as the United States enters its fourth year of war in Iraq.

The slogans now are "political process" and handing over "battle space" to Iraq's new army so that the Iraqis themselves can carry the fight to the insurgents and build their promised democracy.

All those plans are now under review in light of another ominous phrase — "civil war" — that has crept into the debate since the wave of sectarian violence set off by a Feb. 22 bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Samarra.

The shift from the upbeat slogans of 2003 represents an acknowledgment by the U.S. command that the war against an insurgency dominated by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority cannot be won by U.S. arms alone.

Instead, the best chance for peace is to encourage the insurgents to lay down their arms and join the political process, while building up an Iraqi force capable of dealing with those who refuse.

But slogans obscure the complexities at play. The rising tensions between Sunnis and Shiites raise the new question of whether building up Iraq's army forces — the supposed solution — might instead set the stage for civil war.

taint no civil war! Sectarian Fighting Changes Face of Conflict for Iraqis:

The shifting focus of Iraq's war does not mean the fight against the insurgency has ended. Bombings attributed to insurgents have held steady. But execution-style shootings of the kind frequently blamed on Shiite militias and police have skyrocketed since mid-2005, claiming more lives monthly now than bombings, according to figures from Baghdad's morgue.

"Sectarian violence now has become the No. 1 problem in Iraq, more than the insurgency. Or on a par" with the insurgency, said Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the U.N. envoy to Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, said last week that "sectarian violence is a greater concern for us security-wise right now than the insurgency."
Iraq's main means of controlling the factions -- the U.S.-backed government and its new military -- are themselves fractured along sectarian lines. Three months after national elections for what is to be the first full-term government since Hussein's overthrow, Iraq's leaders missed a deadline Sunday for parliament to meet. Bickering over the reappointment of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari, a Shiite, has divided even the Shiite governing coalition.

but taint no civil war! Car Blasts Kill Dozens in Baghdad; At Least 22 Dead in Other Attacks; Leaders Agree to Expedite Unity Talks:

BAGHDAD, March 12 -- A series of powerful explosions ripped through a Shiite Muslim slum in Baghdad on Sunday evening, killing about 50 people and wounding more than 200, as top Iraqi politicians vowed to redouble efforts to form a national unity government and ease a recent surge in sectarian violence.

Official casualty tolls from three car bombings in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City were not available. Capt. Salman al-Nuaimi of the Interior Ministry said that 52 people were killed and 208 wounded in the attacks. He said police found a fourth car that was wired with explosives and defused it.

The Associated Press reported 41 dead and more than 140 injured. Many of the wounded suffered life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Hazim al-Araji, a spokesman for the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers maintain a large presence in Sadr City, said on al-Jazeera satellite television that 50 people had been killed and more than 295 injured in the explosions. He also said the blasts appeared to have been coordinated.

The series of attacks was the deadliest since the Feb. 22 bombing of the Shiites' revered Askariya mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad, unleashed days of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunni Arabs that left at least 1,000 people dead. Sunni leaders have said many of the deaths resulted from retaliatory attacks on Sunnis by Sadr's Mahdi Army, a well-armed militia that the U.S. military estimates has about 10,000 members.

Sadr's spokesman specifically attributed the violence Sunday to Sunni extremists and the U.S. military's three-year occupation of Iraq, not Sunni Arabs in general.

on the contrairy, everthang has gone purrfeckly accordin to plan! Dash to Baghdad Left Top U.S. Generals Divided:

The paramilitary Fedayeen were numerous, well-armed, dispersed throughout the country, and seemingly determined to fight to the death. But while many officers in the field assessed the Fedayeen as a dogged foe, General Franks and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld saw them as little more than speed bumps on the way to Baghdad. Three years later, Iraq has yet to be subdued. Many of the issues that have haunted the Bush administration about the war — the failure to foresee a potential insurgency and to send sufficient troops to stabilize the country after Saddam Hussein's government was toppled — were foreshadowed early in the conflict. How some of the crucial decisions were made, the behind-the-scenes debate about them and early cautions about a sustained threat have not been previously known.

¶A United States Marines intelligence officer warned after the bloody battle at Nasiriya, the first major fight of the war, that the Fedayeen would continue to mount attacks after the fall of Baghdad since many of the enemy fighters were being bypassed in the race to the capital.

¶In an extraordinary improvisation, Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile leader who was a Pentagon favorite, was flown to southern Iraq with hundreds of his fighters as General Franks's command sought to put an "Iraqi face" on the invasion; the plan was set in motion without the knowledge of top administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence.

¶Instead of sending additional troops to impose order after the fall of Baghdad, Mr. Rumsfeld and General Franks canceled the deployment of the First Cavalry Division;
General McKiernan was unhappy with the decision, which was made at a time when ground forces were needed to deal with the chaos in Iraq.

all our volunteers know our forces are doin jes fine! The Home Fires Are Burning Out:

The Army adapted how it fights wars in the 21st century. Now it's time to rethink its expectations of how it treats its volunteers. With each new deployment, the needs of military families evolve because each assignment is different and families may not have had enough time to recover from one deployment before the next one begins. It's not just soldiers who are worn down by repeated deployments — spouses and children are affected too. If we are committed to our troops, then we need to make more of a commitment to their families.

taint no civil war, but ifn twuz, we wood let them iraqis handle it – since when ye thank bout it, ifn twuz a civil war, then them iraqis wood half to fite it! Gen.: Iraq Forces Would Handle Civil War:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. troops would hand Iraqi forces the lead role in halting violence if a civil war breaks out in the country, backing up the Iraqis with strict curfews and restrictions on movement, a top general said Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Douglas Raaberg echoed statements made last week by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who told Congress he didn't believe Iraq would descend into all-out civil war but that if it did, the nation's own security forces would be responsible for dealing with the turmoil.

then our troops wood be able to cum home, rite? rong:

The U.S. plan involves sealing the border, a driving ban and strict curfews. American military and intelligence officials also plan to closely monitor celebrations during the upcoming Shiite al-Arbaeen religious festival for evidence of new attacks on symbolic targets that could trigger what Raaberg described as "all-out mayhem."

Such an attack could delay any drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq planned for this year, Raaberg said.

"It's conditions-based," the Air Force general said of drawdowns. "But all it takes is another incident like Samarra to have us reassess."

Later Sunday, car bombs _ one detonated by a suicide attacker _ and mortar rounds ripped apart two markets in the Shiite Sadr City slum in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 140.

so our brave soljers will or wont be able to cum home?

U.S. troops purposely stayed out of sight during more than a week of sectarian fighting that killed more than 500 Iraqis after the shrine bombing. Military leaders said lowering the U.S. profile during the unrest appeared successful in preventing sectarian mobs from turning on U.S. troops and raising anti-American feeling.

However, some analysts warned the U.S. military could face difficult decisions about whether to intervene if its troops were to witness human rights violations or atrocities during Shiite-Sunni violence.

U.N. peacekeepers, for example, were widely criticized in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia for failing to stop atrocities, most notably the massacre of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. U.N. commanders complained they often lacked the resources and the authority to intervene because their orders were to maintain neutrality.

Some military analysts also believe some factions in Iraq may deliberately try to draw U.S. troops into any sectarian fighting.

Any Iraqi units sent to control future ethnic clashes will be bolstered by 15 to 16-men American "transition teams," U.S. Special Forces and other troops who currently mentor and train Iraqi soldiers, Raaberg said.

Gen. George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, also could request reinforcements from two brigades of Army and Marine troops stationed in Kuwait, just beyond Iraq's southern border.

see? taint no civil war atall ... jes a lil case of 'all-out mayhem'!