The politics of civil war

To hear the American elite media tell it, Iraq is already in a civil war. They're not of course, but the prospect is rather frightening. For example, if worse comes to worse, which side would we choose?

Don Rumsfeld visited Congress Thursday to chat about that very subject and to lay out our plan. Here it is:

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to,"

Not too comforting, eh? Everyone knows that during our own civil war between the states we had brothers fighting against brothers. The ISF might quickly melt into sectarian militias should the worse case happen.

To avoid civil war we need some positives and soon, mainly from the Sunni block. For example, it would help immensely if they began to understand that al-Zarqawi is a nothing but a thug-puppet of the forces who don't want a peaceful Iraq. Mohammed from Iraq the Model has some cautiously optimistic news on that front, suggesting the Sunni tribes are already running Zarqawi into the hills, but we've heard these fantastic things before.

Meanwhile, Weekly Standard reporter Stephen Hayes has another column about those captured Iraqi government documents retrieved after the fall of Baghdad. Several republicans in Congress have been pressing for their release, and part of the package already slipped out a few weeks ago in the form of those Saddam office tapes. You remember--the ones reported as warnings from Saddam to Bush about the upcoming Islamic terrorism that would not contain his fingerprints. Oh yeah, and stuff about nuclear plasma and bioweapons.

Incredibly, Hayes reports that President Bush also wants them released but Intelligence Czar Negroponte doesn't. Folks, that's what some might call misinformation. If the president wanted the docs out, they would already be out.

Releasing the docs might also ruin Condi Rice's day since they probably contain sensitive indictments of certain countries we now consider friends, or others now helping us who didn't before. Some of these might still have a dog in the Iraqi fight, including a favorite side should there be a civil war. That alone may be enough reason to keep the release rate at a trickle.

MORE 3/11/06

In case you missed it, Michael Totten has a first-hand account of Zarqawi's old stomping grounds. It's a must-read.

MORE 3/12/06

Caught Fox's show with Paul Gigot a bit earlier (yep I'm a loser). One of the guests was Stephen Hayes, who sounded every bit as amazed on TV as he did in his article regarding the game between Bush and Negroponte. Gigot asked the obvious question--if Bush wanted em released and Negroponte won't, why does he still work for the government? Hayes answered that he continues to believe the sides are working towards a release.

Maybe they're waiting for the Saddam trial to end before uncovering more stuff. Hopefully it won't linger as long as Milosevic's.

DOCUMENT DUMP 3/14/06

According to an ecstatic Stephen Hayes, the Iraqi docs he's been chasing for months are finally going to be released publicly. Maybe John Negroponte was told to rethink his position after the story hit the press? Anyway, let's hope it's not one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations. The prez could use some positives.