If this is not civil war, what is

If this is not a civil war then what is. Since Sunday, a new wave of violence has killed at least 81 Iraqis. Close to 1,400 Iraqis have died since late February when the Sunni-Shiite score-settling began following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad on Feb 22.

In the latest killings, the police made a gruesome discovery of about 30 beheaded bodies dumped by the roadside in north of Baghdad.

And to make things worse, at least another 16 Iraqis were killed in a US-backed raid in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital.

The Americans of course say these 16 are insurgents. The locals, understandably, will have another version. As it is the accounts of the raid varies. Aides to the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police both said it took place at a mosque, with police claiming 22 bystanders died and al-Sadr's aides saying 18 innocent men were killed.

At the rate this sectarian violence is going, thousands of more Iraqis are surely going to be killed.

Sadly at present there seems to be no action plan in place to find for an amicable solution between the warring Sunnis and Shiites. The invading US troops are looking for “insurgents” in a country where they are no longer welcomed.

And I think they have also lost their moral authority to bring democracy to Iraq after having failed to even provide for basic safety and amenities for the people. After all this, I don’t see the Iraqi population wanting to help the Americans to look for these “insurgents”.

In fact it looks like it is not just a small band of “insurgents” that is involved in the violence. Reports from Iraq are saying that many American-hired civil servants and the police are part of the insurgency. That being the case, if it is true, then this is not going to be an easy task for the Americans.

In a nutshell the Americans have got themselves in corner where wiggling out is going to be more expensive and difficult than what they would have earlier thought.

And the American president says there is no civil war in Iraq. And he blamed the terrorists for the ongoing violence. He should wake up and see the reality now.