NEWS: Pentagon: Iraq civil war is possible; Violence ‘is probably as bad as I have seen it,’ general testifies
The Associated Press
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Updated: 8:59 a.m. MT Aug 3, 2006
WASHINGTON - The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East told Congress on Thursday that “Iraq could move toward civil war” if the raging sectarian violence in Baghdad is not stopped.
“I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I have seen it,” Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said the top priority in the Iraq war is to secure the capital, where factional violence has surged in recent weeks despite efforts by the new Iraqi government to stop the fighting.
A similar remark was offered by Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the panel, “We do have the possibility of that devolving into civil war.” He added that this need not happen and stressed that ultimately it depends on the Iraqis more than on the U.S. military.
“Shiite and Sunni are going to have to love their children more than they hate each other,” Pace said, before the tensions can be overcome. “The weight of that must be on the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government.”
President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have steadfastly refused to call the situation in Iraq a civil war, although Rumsfeld at a news conference on Wednesday acknowledged that the violence is increasing.
The commanders’ concessions about the threat of a civil war came just three months before congressional elections in which Bush administration policy in Iraq looms as a defining issue. Many voters have tired of the 3-year-old war, which has cost more than 2,500 U.S. lives and more than a quarter trillion taxpayer dollars.
Rumsfeld, who testified alongside Abizaid and Pace, did not comment directly on the prospect of civil war but said Iraq’s future lay in the hands of Iraqis, beginning with a reconciliation process that has yet to get under way.
“Ultimately the sectarian violence is going to be dealt with by Iraqis,” Rumsfeld said.
Under questioning by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Pace said he did not anticipate one year ago that Iraq would now be in danger of descending into civil war. Abizaid said it was obvious a year ago that sectarian violence was on the rise, and that Iraq’s police forces did not develop as well as U.S. officials had expected.
“It’s vital that we turn this around,” the general said.
Abizaid also said under questioning that it was possible that U.S. casualties could rise as a result of the battle to contain sectarian violence in the capital.
“I think it’s possible that in the period ahead of us in Baghdad that we’ll take increased casualties — that’s possible,” he said.
Pressure to testify
Rumsfeld and top military officers were testifying Thursday before Congress, which is already bitterly divided over the war. In addition, fresh reports have said that up to two-thirds of the Army’s combat units are unprepared for wartime missions because of the strain of operations in Iraq.
Rumsfeld had said Wednesday he essentially was too busy to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee and would instead attend a private briefing with the entire Senate on Thursday. He changed his mind after hours of criticism and pressure from Senate Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who said the Pentagon chief should be accountable to the public by answering questions on the war.
The Pentagon offered no reason for Rumsfeld’s change of plans. Earlier, it had said the defense secretary has made an aggressive effort to meet with lawmakers regularly, including testimony at an appropriations hearing earlier this year and at other classified briefings.
Rumsfeld’s relations with Congress have been testy at times and he occasionally has resisted testifying publicly on contentious subjects, including the debate over whether high-level officials should be held accountable for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
Extended tours
The Pentagon this week announced its decision to extend the tours of an Alaskan Army brigade to bolster security around a volatile Baghdad and push troop levels to roughly 135,000 — dashing the Bush administration’s hopes of dropping the figure by tens of thousands by the fall congressional campaigns.
Yet Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, said Thursday in Baghdad that his government is “highly optimistic that we will terminate terrorism this year. The Iraqi forces will take over security in all Iraqi provinces by the end of this year gradually, and if God’s will, we will take the lead.” After the comments, his staff sought to explain that Talabani was referring to the beginning of a “process” for Iraqis to assume control, not the final step.
Democrats in Washington have highlighted the Army readiness issue as an example of the administration’s mishandling of the war. They urged the president this week to begin by the end of the year pulling troops out of Iraq.
Bush consistently has said there will be no such pullout until the fledgling Iraqi government can secure its position and Iraq’s security forces can defend the country. Republicans have backed their GOP president on the issue, but have acknowledged their frustration with the length of the war and the delayed homecomings.
“That’s a very difficult thing for us,” said Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, of the Pentagon’s decision to keep in Iraq some 3,500 members of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Wainwright in Alaska.
In a letter to Bush released Monday, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate said they believed the war was overtaxing the military and failing to calm the sectarian violence.
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