Friday, February 02, 2007

National Intelligence Estimate: Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence involving Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds is now a major threat

CNN:

Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence has become the primary source of conflict in the war-ravaged nation and Iraqi leaders will be "hard-pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation" in the next 18 months, according to a summary of the National Intelligence Estimate released Friday.

The report, which was distributed to Congress on Friday and on which President Bush received a briefing Thursday, calls on Iraqi sects -- Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds -- to make significant concessions to stabilize the country.

However, the summary, a nine-page declassified version of the 90-page report, makes no determination as to whether Iraq is in a civil war.

The summary said that "civil war" is too simple a moniker to describe the situation there because the violence includes "extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, al Qaeda [in Iraq] and Sunni insurgent attacks on coalition forces and widespread criminally motivated violence."

However, the term does accurately describe certain elements of the conflict, among them: "the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization and population displacements," according to the summary.

Combating the increasing sectarian violence is a "daunting" task, the summary says, because Shiites are insecure about their hold on power after decades of Sunni hegemony in the social, political and economic realms.

THE IRAQ ESTIMATE: HOW IT WAS PRODUCED

Iraq at Risk of Further Strife, Intelligence Report Warns

U.S. intelligence report predicts worsening Iraq violence

1 Comments:

At 2:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No shit! You don't say. How long did it take these fucks to figure that out? These people are paid for this work? With the brilliant insights that this report provides, I am sure victory is just around the corner

 

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