LAT: U.S. Envoy Offers Bleak View of Situation in Iraq(Khalilizad)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-envoy7mar07,0,3620947.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a "Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the region in all-out war and disrupt the global economy if America were to extricate itself from the country too soon.

In remarks that were among the frankest and bleakest public assessments of the Iraqi situation by a high-level American official, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the "potential is there" for sectarian violence to become all-out civil war, but that Iraq for now had pulled back from that prospect after the wave of sectarian reprisals for the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

"If another incident (occurs), Iraq is really vulnerable to it at this time, in my judgment," Khalilzad said, in an interview with correspondents of the Los Angeles Times Baghdad bureau and a visiting editor.

Abandoning Iraq in the way the U.S. disengaged from civil wars in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Somalia could have dramatic global repercussions, he said.

[mom cat]

1. I reccommend that you listen to this audio of Robert Fisk on what

is happening in Iraq:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x590705

[Voltaire99]

10. Fisk--superb as usual

And his warning more dire than ever.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Another neocon mea culpa, during Lent no less!

Zalmay Khalilzad was among the original PNACers!

[Nostradammit]

3. Mission Accomplished!

I sometimes think the nazi-sympathising Bush family would love nothing more than to provoke the Arab nations into all-out warfare with Israel. They certainly couldn't fuck things up any more if they tried.

[ECH1969]

4. U.S. envoy says "We opened Pandora's box" in Iraq

The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a "Pandora's box" of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that could engulf the region in all-out war and disrupt the global economy if America were to extricate itself from the country too soon.

In remarks that were among the bleakest public assessments of the Iraq situation by a high-level American official, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the "potential is there" for sectarian violence to become all-out civil war.

In any case, Khalilzad said the U.S. has little choice but to maintain a strong presence in Iraq, or risk a regional conflict with Arabs siding with Sunnis and Iranians backing Shiite co-religionists in what could be a more-encompassing version of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, which left as many as 1 million people dead. He described a worst-case scenario in which religious extremists could take over sections of Iraq and begin to expand outward.

"That would make Taliban Afghanistan look like child's play," said Khalilzad, an American of Afghan descent who served as U.S. envoy to Kabul, the Afghan capital, before taking on the post in Baghdad.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002848965_iraq07.html

[northofdenali]

5. My first thought on reading this:

Holy shit.

My next thought was, "Why am I surprised?"

risk a regional conflict with Arabs siding with Sunnis and Iranians backing Shiite co-religionists in what could be a more-encompassing version of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war which left as many as 1 million people dead.

I don't know much about Khalilzad, but labeling his words "bleak" is an understatement.

[Skittles]

6. GEE - YA *THINK* ????????????????????????

F***ING IDIOTS

[FrenchieCat]

7. That's what I said long ago....

And those who think we can slam the lid back shut, are sadly mistaken.

It ain't called "Pandora" for nothing! :(

[Wilms]

8. Isn't that pretty much what they wanted to have happen.

:shrug:

[Judi Lynn]

9. I'm sure you're right. They'll say anything in order to stay right there.

Control of that country is what _Bush has been after. They're not about to give it up, even if they have to kill ever single Iraq citizen to get it done.

We learned a long time ago they have absolutely no respect for people.