Allawi turns on Bush...what next?

[rfranklin]

Allawi: this is the start of civil war
Hala Jaber, Amman



IRAQ’S former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi has warned that his country is facing civil war and has predicted dire consequences for Europe and America as well as the Middle East if the crisis is not resolved.
“The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq,” said Allawi, a long-time ally of Washington.



In an interview with The Sunday Times last week as he visited Amman, the Jordanian capital, he said: “The policy should be of building national unity in Iraq. Without this we will most certainly slip into a civil war. We are practically in stage one of a civil war as we speak.”

-more-

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1687910,00.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. Somewhat Obvious to most peeps who follow this blunder of a war....

[zulchzulu]

2. Time for your bullet sandwich now, Iyad...courtesy of the President

If I were Allawi, I'd bilk another few billion out of the treasury and hightail it to some little island somewhere.

[Union Thug]

3. Maybe he's just trying to win over his peeps?

Before they carry him out and feed him to the lions? There's nothing like a puppet stooge who finally awakens to the reality of his position. They get all wide-eyed and jittery.

[kentuck]

4. Just part of the struggle for the leadership vacuum in Iraq...

the first symptoms of the upcoming civil war...

[quaoar]

5. Allawi is correct

in saying that civil war is a big danger.

But I don't see anyone being able to build this national unity he speaks of. Sadly, I believe civil war in Iraq is inevitable without a radical solution -- partition.

Iraq is like Yugoslavia -- a medley of ethnic groups thrown together into a nation, held together by repression. And when the restraints are loosened, all hell breaks loose.

The Kurds will be the first to leave and it should be relatively peacefully because they have a very effective militia. The Sunnis and Shiites, however, are going to go at it with ferocity.

It would be difficult to separate the two since there is so much intermingling -- especially in Baghdad. And Sunni-dominated areas have little oil so they are unlikely to willingly give up access to that.

[Carla in Ca]

6. Yes, he is correct...now

Interesting how he painted a little rosier picture 9/04 in his speech to Congress, a few months before the election.