What if they declared a civil war and nobody came?

The belowmentioned wire story quotes an Iraqi general saying that there is an "undeclared” civil war killing people, blowing up mosques, and perpetrating other sinister acts. In my family, we would call this type of civil war a “late bloomer.” The kind of civil war that goes away to college and screws around for the first few semesters, taking art classes and music appreciation.

Let’s Review:

-Much of the political boundaries that separate the colonial world were drawn long ago with two objectives in mind: 1) Reduce transition costs 2) Ensure ethnic and religious groups are pitted against one another.

The kind of go hand in hand. Who says that humans are basically good?

-At present, parts of the post-colonial world are seen by the economic freightliners as banks of natural and labor resources.

-There are many suitable examples, however, we will use Iraq. Just because.

-Saddam Hussein rose to the top of the hierarchy of Iraq politics, aided greatly by bullets, and spent his time pacifying the opposition. He kept the colonial unit intact, and the U.S. and the Europeans and Russians worked well with the Iraqi thug, and transition costs were low.

-The U.S. invaded Iraq, toppling Hussein. Because the political boundaries of Iraq do not jibe with the ethnic and religious territories, factional violence broke out. As it should. That’s what is supposed to happen.

-To pacify the country, military leaders say they need more power.

-They will get their power, if they haven’t already assumed it. A coalition of regulars and irregulars will form and anybody who opposes it will disappear.

-Transition costs go down

Sheets get dirty, and they need to be changed occasionally.


Apr 9, 2:43 AM (ET)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car bomb killed six people Saturday near a Shiite shrine south of Baghdad, and the death toll from the deadliest attack of the year rose to nearly 90. A senior official warned Iraq was in an "undeclared civil war" that can be curbed only by a strong government and greater powers for security services.

Despite the violence, U.S. officials have discounted talk of civil war. However, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday that an "undeclared civil war" had already been raging for more than a year.

"Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has been there for a year or more," Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal told The Associated Press. "All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the attacks against the mosques are all part of this."

Kamal said the country would still be spared from all-out sectarian war "if a strong government is formed, if the security forces are given wide powers and if they are able to defeat the terrorists."

"Then we might be able to overcome this crisis," he said.


It’s refreshing, at least, to hear that one of the butchers involved in this horrible waste of life, state the obvious, even if it’s qualified with “undeclared.”