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Length: 4:13
WOLF BLITZER: Meanwhile,
the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan,
says he believes Iraq now is "almost" -- "almost,"
his word -- in a civil war. Some others are arguing,
though, that the violence has passed that tipping
point, certainly a while back.
Joining us now our correspondent in Baghdad, Michael
Ware. Michael, as you know, there's a huge debate
here in the United States, whether or not this is a
civil war. The White House, the Bush administration
denies U.S. troops are involved in a civil war in
Iraq. The Iraqi government, Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki denies this is a civil war. But a lot of
other experts not only say it is a civil war, it may
be one of the most brutal and violent civil wars of
recent memory. You're there on the ground. Is this a
civil war?
WARE: Well, what I can tell you, Wolf, for example is
right now as I'm speaking to you, there's a gun
battle under way, the sound of machine-gun fire in a
neighboring suburb. It's a Sunni area, where it's
known that Shia death squads, often in police
uniforms, roam and the locals band together to repel
them. That could very well be going on as we are
speaking to each other.
Certainly in the rest of Iraq tonight, that's what
communities are doing, banding together, using
telephones and SMS and even blog sites to coordinate
as death squads move in and they prepare their
defenses. The debate about whether this is a civil
war is fueled either by the luxury of distance, those
who aren't here living on the ground, or is fueled by
the spin of those with a political agenda to deny its
existence.
The basic definition is a war by organized groups
within a country. Some say it must be a battle over
the political center with at least 1,000 dead,
involving neighborhood on neighborhood, militia style
combat, elements of ethnic cleansing, you know,
family on family, coordination and organization.
Well, Wolf, you can tick every box.
We now have institutionalized death squads in police
uniforms. You're having Sunni patients pulled out of
Shia-controlled hospitals. You have neighborhoods
with fighting positions. You have districts engaged
in mortar wars, one neighborhood lobbing bombs on
another neighborhood and them retaliating. People
carry dual identity cards, one Sunni, one Shia.
Children dare not go to school for fear of crossing
ethnic lines. Wolf, if this is not a civil war, then
I don't want to see one when it comes.
BLITZER: Is it likely, based on what you see on the
ground there, Michael -- you've been there for more
than three years -- that the violence could even get
worse?
WARE: Oh, I don't think that that would be a
difficult thing to imagine at all. Put it this way.
When I would speak to some of the most senior members
of the U.S. military intelligence here in Iraq, when
they were asked to define civil war, some time ago,
they would say that well we're not at civil war yet,
this is largely an al Qaeda-led sectarian conflict.
It requires al Qaeda to attack to provoke some kind
of response from the Shia. They said it will not be
civil war until it develops its own momentum, that
the Shia attack unprovoked. Well, we passed that way
back earlier this year. And U.S. military
intelligence themselves said at first, we saw the
Shia attacks were targeted, against specific
individuals; now, we see mass killings by the Shia
just like we've been seeing mass killings by the
Sunnis.
U.S. military intelligence then said well it won't be
civil war until we see the body politic, the general
population being pulled apart. Well, Wolf, we've got
that now. So, really, it's easy to see, even by
conservative military intelligence dynamics that this
thing has been rolling along and getting worse, and
so far, there is nothing to suggest that that won't
continue to deteriorate.
BLITZER: Michael Ware, reporting for us from Baghdad,
Michael, thanks very much.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.