Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq

by Paul Craig Roberts - What are we to make of the news reports that Baghdad is to be encircled and divided into smaller and smaller sections by 40,000 Iraqi and 10,000 U.S. troops backed by U.S. airpower and armor in order to conduct house-to-house searches throughout the city to destroy combatants? Are we now going to witness Baghdad reduced to rubble?

Considering reports that 80 percent of Sunnis support the insurgency passively if not actively, it looks as if extermination of Sunnis will be required if the U.S. is to achieve "victory" in Iraq.

If this Baghdad offensive is launched, it will result in an escalation of U.S. war crimes and outrage against the U.S. and the new Iraqi "government." If insurgents remain and fight, U.S. airpower will be used to pulverize the buildings, and "collateral damage" will be high....