We Are Shocked ! Shocked !

The President of the United States won't say it. The President of Iraq won't say it. The Secretary of Defense of the United States won't say it. The main stream media won't say it.

Some of these folk will say we are "near" it, or "sliding toward" it, or "approaching" it or "in danger of" it. But they won't say it. Until now.

It takes Anthony H. Cordesman, the Arleigh Burke Chair in Stategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies to say it. Iraq is already in a state of civil war. All right, I didn't put quotes around it because Cordesman actually said, "Iraq is already in a state of limited civil war." Emphasis added. But a limited civil war is still a civil war and this expert thinks we are there now.

It's in his recent report entitled "Iraqi Force Development and the Challenge of Civil War: Can Iraqi Forces do the Job?" His answer is a qualified "yes". The qualifications, however, are pretty serious, e.g., "most units are severely undermanned, have critical problems in officer and NCO quality and leadership, are too lightly equipped and poorly facilitized, and many are Shiite or Kurdish dominated" and " The [Interior] ministry [is] still plagued by "poor planning and fiscal control capability" and it still had "serious problems with corruption," and "most [national police units] still present problems in terms of both loyalty and effectiveness."

In summary: "There is no near term prospect that Iraqi force development will allow major reductions in MNF-I forces." The successful development of the Iraqi security forces "can only succeed if the MNF-I provides active combat support well into 2008 and major advisory and aid support through 2010," he stated. "Every element of ISF development still requires years of effort and support."


Who is Cordesman ? Among many other things that can be seen HERE he has formerly served as national security assistant to Senator John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as director of intelligence assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and as civilian assistant to the deputy secretary of defense.

So pay attention to the progress, look on the sunny side, vote Republican and

Stay Naked
jd