Iraq War Breaks Down into Civil War

There was another series of three mosque bombings in Baghdad on March 5, 2006 killing about 4 people. The mosques were in a Sunni neighborhood, and

Sunnis contend that Shiites from the governments Ministry of the Interior were responsible for the incident.

There has been a proliferation of attacks in Iraq since the bombings of Shiite mosques in Samara, north of Baghdad on February 22, 2006 that have left about

1,000 dead, and plunged Iraq into a civil war. The civil war is mostly being fought along religious lines in Iraq as Shiites, are in conflict with Sunni insurgent

groups. The Mahdi Army of Shiite militia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was reported by the Washington Post February 27, 2006 as being allegedly responsible for some

of the attacks.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi told the BBC that: "It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more…. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Vice President Cheney said on CBS Face the Nation March 19, 2006 that al Qaeda is behind the terrorism that is plunging Iraqi into a civil war. According to Cheney:

"Clearly there is an attempt under way by the terrorists, by Zarqawi and others, to foment civil war. That's been their strategy all along, but my view would be they've reached a stage of desperation from their standpoint,"

As Iraq breaks down into a civil war it is not clear that continued presence of US troops is really needed at current levels, because the Bush Administration’s foreign policies

appear to have failed. Large U.S. troop reductions of about 50 to 75 percent of the current forces, are needed now.

Iraqi security forces are currently sufficiently strong enough to handle the civil war. Iraq’s newly forming government needs to handle the civil war itself, and more US

troop casualties are not going to reduce the chaotic violence in Iraq.

http://ga4.org/campaign/iraqicivilwar