Civil War Never Far in Iraq

Since 03-08-06

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As fighting between Sunnis and Shiites raged in Iraq, the drumbeat of “civil war” was never far from the lead in the Times’ coverage over the weekend. A Sunday Week in Review think-piece by Washington reporter Steven Weisman laid it out explicitly (“What a Civil War Could Look Like”).

“Two days of mob violence last week after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine did not simply aggravate Iraq's sectarian hatreds. Like a near-death experience, the carnage seems to have shocked Sunni and Shiite leaders into a new realization of what civil war would cost, and new efforts to avoid it. But what happens if such efforts -- and frantic ones by Americans -- prove incapable of stopping an all-out war?....The greatest fear of leaders throughout the Middle East is that an unrestrained civil war, if it ever comes to that, would not only give birth to warring Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves inside Iraq, but that the violence could also spread unpredictably through the region.”

But the coverage in the news pages was no less explicit. A Saturday front-page story from Baghdad by Edward Wong and Sabrina Tavernise is headlined “Religious Strife Shows Strength Of Iraq Militias -- Enough Power to Start Sectarian Civil War.”

“The sectarian violence that has shaken Iraq this week has demonstrated the power that the many militias here have to draw the country into a full-scale civil war, and how difficult it would be for the state to stop it, Iraqi and American officials say.”

Saturday’s lead story by Robert Worth from Baghdad includes this line: “Iraqi leaders and American officials seemed acutely aware that the conflict, which began Wednesday in Samarra after a bomb shattered the dome at one of Iraq's most sacred Shiite shrines, could still push Iraq into a catastrophic civil war, with implications for the entire region.”

In Sunday’s off-lead by Robert Worth and Edward Wong, “Younger Clerics Showing Power In Iraq’s Unrest,” the two reporters combine their pessimistic powers: “After a bomb exploded in Samarra at one of Iraq's most sacred Shiite shrines on Wednesday, many young Shiites ignored his pleas for calm, instead heeding more extreme calls and attacking Sunni mosques and killing Sunni civilians, even imams, in a crisis that has threatened to provoke open civil war.”

Monday’s lead story by Edward Wong, “Iraqi Sunni Bloc To Rejoin Talks On Government,” although acknowledging that tensions may be easing in Iraq, still brings up the spectre of “civil war”

“Leaders of the main Sunni Arab political bloc have decided to return to suspended talks over the formation of a new government, the top Sunni negotiator said Sunday. The step could help defuse the sectarian tensions that threatened to spiral into open civil war last week after the bombing of a Shiite shrine and the killings of Sunnis in reprisal.”