In Washington, Anthony Cordesman, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said by telephone: “If you total up the number of people that are being killed, that are being wounded, that are being displaced and are being forced to leave the country, and the zones in which there is major civil conflict . . . trying to declare there isn’t a civil war borders on the absurd.” ~The Washington Post

United States President George Bush on Saturday denied that Iraq is plunging into civil war, just a day after the Pentagon painted a bloody picture of a nation caught in a spiral of increasing violence. ~The Mail & Guardian(9/03/06)