Nir Rosen: Iraq's Spreading Civil War (Steve Clemons)

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http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001249.php

There are a number of observers such as Al Jazeera's Yosri Fouda, Al Quds' Abdel Barri Atwan, journalist Amos Oz, Peter Bergen, the University of Chicago's Robert Pape, and the eminent Juan Cole who are high on my list of thoughtful commentators on what is unfolding in the Middle East, but Nir Rosen combines in his excellent commentary the grit that comes from being there and hanging out with insurgents, terrorists, clerics, Iraqi nationalists, and American soldiers.

This Sunday, Nir Rosen will have a major article that focuses on Jordanian and Syrian jihadists in the New York Times Magazine. I've had a preview -- and it's fascinating and important commentary.

The most disturbing part of our meeting today with Rosen is his view that a civil war in Iraq is raging now, and spreading beyond Iraq's borders. The tempo of violence is increasing.

He reports that there have been several significant failed efforts to unite Shia and Sunni Muslim elements, and these have all failed. I'm not going to go into the fascinating detail that Nir Rosen did today, as I think that much of this will be in his piece on Sunday.

What is really depressing about this growing regional tension, spinning out of Iraq, is that sectarian-fueled identity and violent rage has been aggravated and deepened by the transition from Saddam Hussein, who identified himself more tribally as a Tikriti than as a Sunni, to American occupation.

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