Iraq is in the middle of civil war, the country's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi on Sunday told the BBC. Allawi suggested there was no other way to describe the current sectarian violence. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," Allawi said.
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. 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."
Allawi said it would be a mistake to underplay Iraq's problems, although the country was "edging towards" a political deal. According to him, he had warned against creating a vacuum in the country and raised concerns about the insurgents and the dismantling of the military.
Rumsfeld
On his part, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday wrote a guest column in The Washington Post, saying if Americans were to turn away from Iraq, it would be "the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis." He also wrote that "it would be as great a disgrace as if we had asked the liberated nations of Eastern Europe to return to Soviet domination because it was too hard or too tough."
Rumsfeld cited higher voter participation in Iraqi elections and rising competence of Iraqi troops as evidence of progress. "The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq," he wrote.
