Iraq's Ambassador To The U.S.: Al Qaeda Pushing Iraq Toward Civil War

Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily

Al Qaeda Pushing Iraq Toward Civil War, Ambassador Says -- Washington Times

A resurgent al Qaeda is trying to push Iraq toward a civil war, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday.

“In recent months, levels of violence in Baghdad and elsewhere have spiked as al Qaeda and its affiliates are trying to push Iraq toward civil war,” Ambassador Lukman Faily said at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Six people were killed and dozens wounded in bombings in northern and central Iraq on Wednesday.

The United Nations estimates that more than 4,000 people have been killed in Iraq since April in a wave of Muslim violence between the rival Sunni and Shiite sects. Most of the attacks have taken place in the capital Baghdad.

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My Comment: His fears are justified. His discussion at the Brookings Institute can be heard here.

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Iraq’s al Qaeda Nightmare Is Back

Zarqawism Lives: Iraq’s al Qaeda Nightmare Is Back -- Bruce Riedel, Daily Beast

The misguided war in Iraq may have finished for Americans, but its violent backlash is far from over. Bruce Riedel on how decapitation just can’t kill al Qaeda.

A rising wave of extreme anti-Shia sectarian violence is sweeping Iraq. Hundreds have died in terror attacks this summer. The mass slaughter of Shia at the hands of al Qaeda threatens to drag the country back to civil war. Worse, al Qaeda in Iraq has now exported its violence to Syria, and Lebanon is not far behind. Not since the Saudi and Wahhabi sack of Najaf and Kerbala in 1806 has sectarian violence in the Middle East been this extreme.

The origins of this wave of extreme sectarianism are many, and Iraq’s Shia government cannot escape much of the responsibility for allowing it to develop. Prime Minister Maliki’s government encouraged Shia identity and sectarian animosity. Sunni Arabs have been treated poorly. Iran has encouraged Maliki’s sectarian policies at home. The Iranian and Hezbollah intervention in Syria this spring has exacerbated the tensions to the boiling point.

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Update: Iraq's deadliest month: Who's behind the bloodshed? -- Arwa Damon, CNN

My Comment: Warfare and conflict has been the norm in this part of the world for centuries .... and I do not see the situation changing at anytime in the future.

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