NO, SAYS RUMSFELD
NOT A CHANCE SAYS CHENEY
YES, MOST DEFINITELY SAYS FORMER IRAQ PRIME MINISTER
US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, wrote in a Washington Post column two days ago that leaving Iraq now would be comparable to having handed post-World War 2 Germany back to the defeated Nazis.
Rumsfeld believes the Iraqi insurgency is close to being defeated, and there are reports growing that US troops numbers will actually be increased, not decreased, in the coming months.
US Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, also said Iraq is not experiencing a civil war. He chose to describe the extreme violence and bloodshed as signs of desperation from the insurgents as they struggled to stop the shift to democracy.
"What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment a civil war," Cheney said on Face The Nation. "But I don't think they've been successful."
Former Iraq Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, has told BBC in London that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war and is growing closer to the point of no return. He fears the sectaraian violence will now spill over and consume the rest of the Middle East."It is unfortunate that we are in a civil war," Allawi said. "We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
