A man who kills on his own is a murderer....A man who kills at his government's request is a national hero.

Ramman Kenoun

There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. "

Two top U.S. generals said yesterday that the sectarian violence in Iraq is much worse than they had ever anticipated and could lead to civil war, arguing that improving the situation is now more a matter of Iraqi political will than of U.S. military strategy.

Marine General Anthony Zinni, who was commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command, in charge of all American troops in the Middle East, said flatly that we'd wasted 3 years.

We have a force in Iraq that's much too small to stabilize the situation. It's about half the size, or maybe even a third, of what we need.

Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak
Air Force chief of staff, 1990-94

Kidnappers now routinely separate hostages by religion and execute them.

Fifty tortured bodies were found here in the past 24 hours, and the sectarian violence is increasingly damaging American reconstruction efforts.

October 11, 2006 | Michael D. Evans

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, has given the order: Raise the American death count in Iraq to 3,000 before the Nov. 7 general election. This news came from a high-level Israeli leader. The death count in the month of September was 65 and stands at 28 thus far for the month of October. The dead and wounded in Iraq to date number 23,212. The total number of dead stands at 2,744 – Iran is 256 body bags away from achieving its goal, which means it will have to accelerate the death count to approximately nine Americans per day in Iraq.

Thu Sep 28, 11:50 AM ET

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq called

 for launching biological warfare on US troops in the war-torn country, in an audio-clip posted on the Internet.

Generals: Iraq strife must end

The leaders tell senators that civil war is possible if Iraqis don't stop the sectarian chaos that plagues their nation.

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the administration may need to seek new authorization from Congress to allow U.S. troops to fight in a civil war.

"You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box."

George W.Bush

US generals, Iraqi journalists say civil strife is Iraq's greatest threat.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Gunmen assaulted two Sunni mosques and sprayed bullets into Sunni homes in a mixed neighborhood Tuesday in sectarian violence that killed three people and wounded 15, many of them attackers suspected of being followers of a radical Shiite cleric.

Police in Baghdad also found the bodies of 23 men apparently slain by the sectarian death squads terrorizing the capital.

"Only if the Shi'ites and Sunnis love their children more than they hate each other." Gen. Pace made this statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee when the question was asked if civil war in Iraq could be averted

General Peter Pace

Generals Raise Fears of Iraq Civil War

By Ann Scott Tyson

The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.

Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Some influential retired generals have called for Rumsfeld to resign his post because of his abusive leadership style and strategic failures in the war in Iraq A half-dozen retired generals have called for Rumsfeld's ouster, citing mistakes in the conduct of the war in Iraq. Some have suggested that intimidation by Rumsfeld kept military leaders quiet even when they thought policies were flawed.

The Bush administration is concealing the level of violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and the situation there is growing worse.

Rumsfeld was profoundly in the dark. I think he really didn't understand what he was doing. He miscalculated the kind of war it was and he miscalculated the interpretation of U.S. behavior by the Iraqi people. They felt they had been invaded. They did not see this as a liberation.

Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy

Iraqis Want U.S. Troops Out

Associated Press | September 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - About six in 10 Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and slightly more than that want their government to ask U.S. troops to leave within a year, according to a poll in that country.

Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents.

Baghdad Battle Bloodier for U.S. Troops

Associated Press | October 06, 2006BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraq war could be heading to its decisive moment: a battle for the capital of Baghdad that already has turned dramatically bloodier for American Soldiers and carries enormous stakes for the country's future.

At least 13 American Soldiers have been killed around Baghdad since Monday - the highest four-day U.S. toll in the capital since the 2003 invasion.

That count is likely to rise higher as the U.S.-led forces step up their campaign to root out the extremist militias, death squads and terrorist cells that have turned the city into a collection of armed, ethnically divided camps.

"Securing Baghdad ... won't win. But losing Baghdad will lose," Cordesman says. "If they lose, Iraq is likely to slip into a major civil war."

Baghdad is "the center of gravity for the country. Everybody knows that," Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. "The bad guys know it, we know it, the Iraqis know it. So we have to help the Iraqis secure their capital if they're going to go forward."

Iraq Police Linked to Death Squads

Associated Press | October 04, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have taken a brigade of up to 700 policemen out of service and put members under investigation for "possible complicity" with death squads following a mass kidnapping earlier this week, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

a series of bombs went off in rapid succession in a shopping district in a mainly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 50, police said. The dead were among 28 people killed in attacks across Iraq

The U.S. military also announced the death of two soldiers - the latest in what has been one of the bloodiest stretches of days for American troops this year. At least 17 troops have been killed in combat since Saturday, including eight U.S. soldiers who died in gunbattles and bomb blasts Monday in Baghdad - the most killed in a single day in the capital since July 2005.

"We will respect carefully the international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions," "I hope that the American Army will respect (this) also."

Hanging Saddam Would Cause Chaos

Associated Press | October 06, 2006WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team, predicted on Thursday that a bloodbath would follow should an Iraqi court trying the former president have him executed.

At a news conference, Clark said he feared that should Saddam and the others be hanged, "catastrophic violence" would follow that would lead to "the end of civilization as we know it in the birthplace of civilization, Mesopotamia. Total, unmitigated chaos."

Saddam's Sunni Muslim tribe of 1.5 million would be enraged over what they would consider the revenge killing of the former president by the Shiite-controlled and U.S.-sponsored government, Clark said.

"There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf
"BaghDad Bob