US President George W. Bush's administration continues to insist Iraq is not heading toward a civil war, even as some senators and military leaders have expressed concerns that such a conflict may be inevitable.
"It would be, really, erroneous to say that the Iraqis are somehow making a choice for civil war, or, I think, even sliding into civil war," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday on ABC's This Week.
But Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, an influential member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sounded more pessimistic and questioned whether the US should keep sending more troops to Iraq.
PHOTO: AFP
Hagel said this country cannot "ask them to do the things that we're asking them to do in the middle of a civil war, and that's where it's headed."
"We're ruining our United States Army. We are decimating our army. We can't continue with the tempo and the commitment that we are on right now," Hagel said on CBS' Face the Nation.
Early yesterday, fighting erupted in a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad, and a suicide bomber blew himself up among mourners at a funeral in Saddam Hussein's hometown, killing 10 people and injuring 22.
Three US soldiers were killed late on Sunday in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad, the US military said. No further details were released.
Also on Sunday, scattered clashes broke out between Shiite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers near Hamza Square on the edge of Sadr City, police said.
The Bush administration has been reluctant to characterize the sectarian violence in Iraq as a civil war. But on Thursday, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, told a Senate committee that it could lead to that.
Another senator was even more pessimistic on Sunday.
"This is a civil war. I think the generals, the other day, were cautious in their language. But I think they were telling us something loud and clear to anyone who wanted to listen," Senator Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said on Face the Nation. "I frankly don't believe that US military people can necessarily play referee in that kind of a situation."
Both Dodd and Hagel encouraged more involvement and discussions with other countries in the Middle East.
Hagel said Bush should get his father and former president Bill Clinton involved in a regional summit. But he also acknowledged that the prospects for success would be unlikely.
"There are no good options here, no good options," Hagel said.
Sitting in a lotus position, four men weave glittering beads through gold thread on an organza sheet, carefully constructing a wedding dress that would soon wow crowds at Paris Fashion Week. For once, the French couturier behind the design, Julien Fournie, is determined to put these craftsmen in the spotlight. His new collection, which showed in Paris on Tuesday, was entirely made with fabrics from Mumbai. He said that a sort of “design imperialism” means that French fashion houses often play down that their fabrics are made outside France. “The houses which don’t admit it are perhaps afraid of losing their clientele,” Fournie
A court in Thailand sentenced a 27-year-old political activist to 28 years in prison on Thursday for posting messages on Facebook that it said defamed the country’s monarchy, while two young women charged with the same offense continued a hunger strike after being hospitalized. The court in the northern province of Chiang Rai found that Mongkhon Thirakot contravened the lese majeste law in 14 of 27 posts for which he was arrested in August last year. The law covers the king, queen and heirs, and any regent. The lese majeste law carries a prison term of three to 15 years per incident for
A gunman killed 10 people and wounded 10 others at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dance club following a Lunar New Year celebration, setting off a manhunt for the suspect in the latest mass shooting tragedy in an American community. Captain Andrew Meyer of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said Sunday that the wounded were taken to hospitals and their conditions range from stable to critical. He said the 10 people died at the scene in the city of Monterey Park. Meyer said people were “pouring out of the location screaming” when officers arrived at around 10:30 pm Saturday. He said officers then
INSTABILITY: The country has seen a 33 percent increase in land that cultivates poppies since the military took over the government in 2021, a UN report said The production of opium in Myanmar has flourished since the military’s seizure of power, with the cultivation of poppies up by one-third in the past year, as eradication efforts have dropped and the faltering economy has led more people toward the drug trade, a UN report released yesterday showed. Last year, the first full growing season since the military wrested control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, saw a 33 percent increase in Myanmar’s cultivation area to 40,100 hectares, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime report said. “Economic, security and governance disruptions
RSS