Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me'. - Orwell

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honesty is a tricky quality because if you don’t have it you might never know it. Dishonesty is diagnosed by honesty. Honesty breeds honesty, dishonesty breeds dishonesty.

Senator Ted Kennedy recently said we do not want to have a troop surge in Iraq because we don’t want to inject them into a civil war. Of course he isn’t the first, nor only one to say that Iraq is in civil war. But is it honest to say what is going on over there is civil war? Lets look at some news stories to see. “A 75-year-old chief from Iraq's powerful Tamim tribe was thrown to his death from the top of a Baghdad building after gunmen kidnapped him from a funeral, a relative said today.

Sheik Hamed Mohammed Suhail, a Sunni leader in a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite tribe, was seized from the funeral in Agarguff area near Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Monday.

"He was dragged from the funeral and taken to Shuala area in Baghdad and then thrown from the top of a building,'' his nephew, tribal leader Sheik Ali Suhail al-Tamimi, said, blaming Shi'ite militants.

Although Mohammed Suhail is a Sunni, nearly two thirds of his tribe is Shi'ite and he was known as a moderate who was working to reconcile Baghdad's warring communities, his nephew said.

"We accuse the Mahdi Army of killing him in this ugly way,'' Mr Suhail said, pointing the finger at radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, which has been accused of killing Sunni Arabs in Iraq's sectarian conflict. ” [January 03, 2007 Herald Sun]

I have never heard of a civil war in which a combat technique used by soldiers was throwing enemy soldiers off roofs. Seems like that would be an inefficient way to wage war of any kind.

“A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200 after luring construction workers onto a pickup truck by offering them jobs as they were eating breakfast.

The bombing took place about 7 a.m. in Tayaran Square, where men gather daily to solicit jobs as construction workers, cleaners and painters. They buy breakfast at stands selling tea and egg sandwiches while waiting for potential employers to drive up, making them easy targets.

It was the second major attack in less than a month in which unemployed Shiites were lured to their deaths by a suicide bomber promising to hire them for the day. On Nov. 19, 22 people were killed and 44 were wounded when a minivan driven by a man promising work exploded in the mainly Shiite southern city of Hillah.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, blamed the "horrible crime" on Sunni extremists. "Iraq's security forces will chase the criminals and bring them to justice," he said.” [December 12, 2006 Las Vegas Sun]

Again, is this a form of combat used in any civil war you have ever heard of?? Sectarian terrorism, or just plain terrorism, would be more honest ways to describe what happened in these two stories. Malki called the suicide bombing a “horrible crime” and calling those criminals “criminals”. Woah! Honesty! If one wants to be a terrorist and engauge in this kind of crime where is the best place to be these days? Iraq! All Saddam’s leftover murderers and torturers can have their fill of killing and torturing. Kidnapping someone and then throwing them off a building – who might have done that before, maybe in gangsters or some other sort of thug? Those inclined to murder by suicide can lure poor, unarmed, innocent, Iraqis with a lie, then blow them up. But let’s be honest and not call it civil war. Notice what Mohammed Suhail was trying to do - “reconcile Baghdad's warring communities”. The fact that Mohammed Suhail’s tribe was “nearly two thirds” Shi'ite while he was a Sunni is proof there are those in Iraq who think “I am a human being first, Iraqi second, Shi’ite, Sunni third”, - they are not wishing for civil war. Anyone who read the Z letters knows that Iraqi “civil war” was what he wanted for Iraqis if not for the whole Islamic nation. (“I come back and again say that the only solution is for us to strike the religious, military, and other cadres among the Shi`a with blow after blow until they bend to the Sunnis. Someone may say that, in this matter, we are being hasty and rash and leading the [Islamic] nation into a battle for which it is not ready, [a battle] that will be revolting and in which blood will be spilled. This is exactly what we want, since right and wrong no longer have any place in our current situation. The Shi`a have destroyed all those balances. - Zarqawi”)

Another article; “A report on Iran's intelligence presence in Iraq by the Saudi National Security Assessment Project asserts that Iran has at least 5,000 agents, responsible for helping establish Shi'ite death squads. Al Quds "has a close relationship with the Badr Organization and the Mahdi Army, as well as with smaller Iraqi Shi'ite militias," the report said. "Members of the Al Quds Forces organized what came to be known as the death squads under the former Iraqi Interior Minister.” [Geostrategy Direct]

In one recent operation in Baghdad 21 insurgents were captured including 7 foreigners (al-Qaeda), 33% not Iraqis at all.

Is this civil war?

Writing an article like this is frustrating since there are so many examples of dishonesty in human communications and further I could be accused of cherry picking and being dishonest myself.

Dishonesty is a quagmire.