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Fox News: All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?
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| DaveSZ |
| quote: | Fox News featured two onscreen captions during a segment on escalating violence in Iraq that read: "'Upside' To Civil War?" and "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
A segment about escalating sectarian violence in Iraq on the February 23 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto featured onscreen captions that read: " 'Upside' To Civil War?" and "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
The segment, guest-hosted by Fox News Live (noon-1:30 pm hour ET) anchor David Asman, featured commentary by Fox News military analyst Lt. Col. Bill Cowan and Center for American Progress senior fellow Col. P.J. Crowley.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602240003
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Speechless, but not surprised.
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| DrUg_Tit0 |
| Gee, I have a feeling that Fox would say that an all-out nuclear war with the rest of the world might be a good thing if Bush thinks so. |
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| Marc Summers |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nou
Someone needs to hit the restart button. |
I always wish it was that easy :( |
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| The Greek |
| They report that now that things look bad so that if a civil war does brake out, they have already convinced America's heartland that its a good thing, thus no sour feelings toward the administration. |
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| InterMilan31 |
| screenshot was on Bill Mahr the other day laughed my ass off about this...Fox News is so bad its ridiculous its on at my gym so I watch it when I work out and boy its hillarious to listen to some of the shows and their view points. This has to top it civil war I dont think is ever a good thing. |
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| Kapedan |
I think sometimes Civil Wars are a good thing. If you look back in history, I mean you could say that the US civil war was a good thing, it made us a united nation rather then a divided on. Honestly, I havent been following the Iraqi war much, but civil wars sometimes can be a good thing, and from what I understand, Iraq now is a divided nation.
Ben, Bill Mahr is a in idiot :stongue: , so dont watch him. |
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| sensorium |
| quote: | WASHINGTON — President Bush's national security adviser said Sunday that Iraqi leaders had "stared into the abyss" and determined that sectarian violence was not in their interest.
Although bombings and other attacks have surged in the last week, Stephen Hadley expressed optimism in the light of statements from Iraqis who have condemned the attacks and pledged to move forward with building a unity government.
"It is a time of testing for Iraqis," Hadley said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"They've stared into the abyss a bit, and I think they've all concluded that further violence, further tension between the communities, is not in their interest," he said.
Hadley said the hope is that advancing the political agenda and continuing to train Iraqi security forces will work against the terrorist attacks.
"There has to be the country coming together and committing to a unified future together. That is the process we hope will be accelerated by this. That is the hope out of this tragedy," he said.
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Iraq's political leaders should be pressured to form their unity government in the next six weeks to eight weeks.
If that doesn't happen, Levin said, the U.S. should reassess its presence.
"There's no point in our staying if they don't get their political house in order, because without them coming together politically, there is no chance of them solving the insurgency problem," Levin said on "This Week" on ABC. "That's our military people telling us that."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said more sectarian violence and a failure to form a government would bring the country "a step away from major civil war."
"The worst thing would be for the United States to get caught in the middle," Feinstein told CNN's "Late Edition."
Feinstein criticized Bush for not stating his plan for dealing with a civil war if one were to develop.
"This is a deteriorating situation, and we have to deal with it as such and not just say, 'I'm optimistic,'" she said.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said failure in Iraq could cause instability elsewhere in the Middle East. She said Bush was right not to take sides in Iraq's internal conflicts.
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It is only a test. |
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| DJFreaq |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nou
Someone needs to hit the restart button. |
I want a restart button for my life. But I want the same memory. So I can not repeat .
But FOX news? No surprise. Do fat kids love twinkies? |
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| occrider |
Good news for the people at fox news. Man I bet our boys can't wait to be in the middle of a full blown civil war.
| quote: |
Iraq study: Warning over civil war
Group calls for changes to new Iraqi constitution
Monday, February 27, 2006 Posted: 0452 GMT (1252 HKT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A timely analysis of Iraq's sectarian divisions has found the country's leaders still have time to reach "a genuine national compact" that will defuse the seething Shiite-Sunni tensions in the country, now reeling after last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
The study is by the International Crisis Group (ICG), an influential non-governmental group dedicated to finding solutions to conflicts across the globe.
"Iraqi political actors and the international community must act urgently to prevent a low-intensity conflict from escalating into an all-out civil war that could lead to Iraq's disintegration and destabilize the entire region," the document says.
The ICG report calls for changes to the constitution Iraqi voters adopted in October that would foster the inclusion of Sunni Arabs, who dominated the country under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
It warns against provisions that allow for the creation of a Shiite autonomous region in southern Iraq and calls for "establishing administrative federalism on the basis of provincial boundaries" outside the longstanding autonomous Kurdish region.
The Sunni heartland in north-central and western Iraq does not have the oil wealth found in the Shiite lands in southern Iraq and the Kurdish region in the north, so the report calls for a fair distribution of Iraq's oil wealth and the creation of an independent agency to prevent corruption.
The report urges the United States to continue to push for national unity, promote a constitution that ensures inclusiveness to all and help build up Iraq's security forces. Any U.S. troop withdrawals should be "gradual" and must take into account the country's progress in politics and developing indigenous troops.
"Although U.S. and allied troops are more part of the problem than they can ever be part of its solution, for now they are preventing -- by their very presence and military muscle -- ethnic and sectarian violence from spiraling out of control," it states.
The report's recommendations have taken on an air of urgency since Wednesday's bombing of the al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, one of Shiite Islam's top holy sites. The attack sparked a wave of bloodshed that had left more than 200 dead by Sunday.
The Sunni-Shiite hatred that boiled over after last week's bombing and reprisals against Sunnis had percolated over last year, with Sunni insurgents attacking Shiites and "certain government commando units carrying out reprisals against Sunni Arabs, in whose midst the insurgency continues to thrive."
The study urges the parliamentary election winners to condemn sectarian attacks, put together a national unity government, change controversial aspects of the constitution and disband militias. They also are urged to promote non-sectarian and professional security forces and fair de-Baathification, judging "former Baath party members on the basis of crimes committed, not political beliefs or religious convictions."
But it warned the international community to be prepared for the possibility that Iraq will break apart, "so as to contain the inevitable fallout on regional stability and security."
"Such an effort has been a taboo, but failure to anticipate such a possibility may lead to further disasters in the future," the ICG warned.
Iraq -- with its large populations of Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs, Kurds and others -- has always had sectarian tension. But the study said "2005 will be remembered as the year Iraq's latent sectarianism took wings, permeating the political discourse and precipitating incidents of appalling violence and sectarian cleansing."
"Over the past year, social and political tensions evident since the removal of the Baathist regime have turned into deep rifts. Iraq's mosaic of communities has begun to fragment along ethnic, confessional and tribal lines, bringing instability and violence to many areas, especially those with mixed populations," the report states.
It quotes an Iraqi official as saying that before 2005, "sectarian violence was a sleeping volcano. Now it has erupted and the question is whether it has gone out of control and how much damage it will do."
The study said the transitional national assembly elections in January 2005 and the December parliamentary elections brought religion squarely into the political sphere, "perhaps the most significant development" since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Hussein in 2003.
"With mosques turned into party headquarters and clerics outfitting themselves as politicians, Iraqis searching for leadership and stability in profoundly uncertain times essentially turned the elections into confessional exercises," the report found.
The top winners of the December election for the 275-member Council of Representatives were the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish alliance, which came in one-two as they had in the January 2005 elections for a transitional government.
The report said Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shiite cleric, had played a positive role in urging restraint against violence, but his influence appeared to be waning.
And it quotes Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, as saying, "We should do everything in our power to protect him. He is our insurance policy against civil war."
The report bemoans the lack of secular political alternatives in Iraq, noting that non-religious lists found few voters in December's elections.
"If there is still a mass of secular Iraqis, unorganized and disaffected with the politics of the new order, it has yet to find a political voice," the report found.
The ICG urges the United States to engage Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, to help promote stability. It calls on Iraq's neighbors to back Iraq's territorial integrity, a national-unity government and a halt to the flow of insurgents into Iraq.
Iran, a Persian Shiite country with allies in Iraq's leadership, "seems content to maintain the status quo, including the continued presence of U.S. forces" and a unified Iraq.
"However, Tehran's calculation may change. Should the nuclear question come to a head and force international intervention of some kind (including sanctions), the regime may want to fight the U.S. where it is most vulnerable -- namely in Iraq."
Iran, the European Union and the United States are currently in a diplomatic standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, which the United States says is aimed at developing nuclear weapons -- an allegation Iranian officials deny.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/m....war/index.html
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| washout |
| quote: | Originally posted by Kapedan
I think sometimes Civil Wars are a good thing. If you look back in history, I mean you could say that the US civil war was a good thing, it made us a united nation rather then a divided on. |
can this be measured ??
i mean im southern and i hate yankees.
when i hear a yankee accent down here, i kinda tone out.
maybe its just the accent i hate.
i dont know. |
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| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by washout
can this be measured ??
i mean im southern and i hate yankees.
when i hear a yankee accent down here, i kinda tone out.
maybe its just the accent i hate.
i dont know. |
No civil wars are not good things. Don't be fooled by illogical arguments. An analogy to what Kapedan is saying is that just because some wars are just wars than we should conclude that any war has the potential to be just (completely disregarding any other method of conflict resolution) and therefore, through abstract insinuation, we should regard this particular conflict with this erroneous belief in mind. Take note that he failed to provide ANY details or ANY justifications to support his insinuation. If he actually cared to make a cogent argument he would make the slightest bit of effort to provide a legitimate argument with some kind of direction that supports his vague insinuation rather than being lazy and wholly abstract like some kind of retarded hippy. |
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| donnybrasco |
Funny how no one here actually SAW this report or even knows what it was about, or if it was even meant to reflect Fox's slant on the issue, or if they were perhaps just being facetous?
Nope, we're alll just going to go off the "summary" from that trusted stalwart of a world-wide media organization like "media matters":crazy: |
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