This is not civil war in Iraq; it is a limited, strategic, and tactical ploy whereby foreigners try desperately to inflame Iraqis against one another. The aim of these foreigners is to bring about such a cataclysm of murder and insecurity and fear that their tiny, tiny minority can then capture total power.
[T]he overall violence had not subsided, and...large-scale attacks using car bombs against markets and other locations filled with civilians could still occur and set off more Sunni and Shiite revenge killings.
The case for withdrawing in no way changes if you simply define "civil war" out of existence. Even if you think a civil war is only a cival war if it wasn't ignited and flame-fanned by a small fringe group, it doesn't make the situation in Iraq any more salvagable. If I thought the escalation had any chance of ending the fight between Iraqi Shiites and Sunni nationalists, I might support it. Instead, I've heard plenty of compelling explanations of why it can't do that and not a single argument thus far from anybody that makes me think it can or will.
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