Violence, there’s so much violence in the world Baghdad. The latest from the “not a civil war, nosiree” is right here:

At least 23 people have been killed in a fresh wave of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, amid warnings the country is on the brink of civil war.

The worst death toll was in a blast near a security checkpoint that killed at least 20 people and wounded 40.

That’s on top of 68 deaths yesterday, by the way. For an up close and all too personal perspective on the chaos, go read Iraqi blogger, Riverbend here:

The last few days have been unsettlingly violent in spite of the curfew. We’ve been at home simply waiting it out and hoping for the best. The phone wasn’t working and the electrical situation hasn’t improved. We are at a point, however, where things like electricity, telephones and fuel seem like minor worries. Even complaining about them is a luxury Iraqis can’t afford these days.

The sounds of shooting and explosions usually begin at dawn, at least that’s when I first sense them, and they don’t really subside until well into the night. There was a small gunfight on the main road near our area the day before yesterday, but with the exception of the local mosque being fired upon, and a corpse found at dawn three streets down, things have been relatively quiet.

Some of the neighbors have been discussing the possibility of the men setting up a neighborhood watch. We did this during the war and during the chaos immediately after the war. The problem this time is that the Iraqi security forces are as much to fear as the black-clad and hooded men attacking mosques, houses and each other.[…]

Yesterday they were showing Sunni and Shia clerics praying together in a mosque and while it looked encouraging, I couldn’t help but feel angry. Why don’t they simply tell their militias to step down- to stop attacking mosques and husseiniyas- to stop terrorizing people? It’s so deceptive and empty on television- like a peaceful vision from another land. The Iraqi government is pretending dismay, but it’s doing nothing to curb the violence and the bloodshed beyond a curfew. And where are the Americans in all of this? They are sitting back and letting things happen- sometimes flying a helicopter here or there- but generally not getting involved.

US forces not getting involved, eh? Sort of lends creedence to those who claim Bush wants chaos because it pumps up the oil prices that benefit his buddies in Big Oil and Saudi Arabia.

The Sunnis, however, are blaming both the Shi’ites and US forces for the violence against them in this “not a civil war”:

(More on the flip . . . )

BAGHDAD, March 1 (Reuters) – Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim religious organisation, accusing the Shi’ite-led government and U.S. forces of involvement in attacks by Shi’ite militiamen, called on Wednesday on the community to protect its mosques.

“Our brothers in all areas must protect their mosques as the government has failed to do so,” Abdul Salam al-Qubaisi, spokesman for the Muslim Clerics Association, told a news conference broadcast live on Al-Jazeera television. […]

Qubaisi angrily listed alleged attacks on Sunnis across Iraq and accused Shi’ite police of attacking the Baghdad home of the group’s head, Harith al-Dari, on Saturday, wounding some of Dari’s nieces.

Meanwhile, back in the USSA, new leaks regarding the intelligence Bush received tells us what we already knew — that he and his neocon pals never listen to anything that’s contrary to what they already believe:

WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence agencies repeatedly warned the White House beginning more than two years ago that the insurgency in Iraq had deep local roots, was likely to worsen and could lead to civil war, according to former senior intelligence officials who helped craft the reports.

Among the warnings, Knight Ridder has learned, was a major study, called a National Intelligence Estimate, completed in October 2003 that concluded that the insurgency was fueled by local conditions – not foreign terrorists- and drew strength from deep grievances, including the presence of U.S. troops. […]

The reports received a cool reception from Bush administration policymakers at the White House and the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, according to the former officials, who discussed them publicly for the first time.

President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and others continued to describe the insurgency as a containable threat, posed mainly by former supporters of Saddam Hussein, criminals and non-Iraqi terrorists – even as the U.S. intelligence community was warning otherwise.

Robert Hutchings, the chairman of the National Intelligence Council from 2003 to 2005, said the October 2003 study was part of a “steady stream” of dozens of intelligence reports warning Bush and his top lieutenants that the insurgency was intensifying and expanding.

“Frankly, senior officials simply weren’t ready to pay attention to analysis that didn’t conform to their own optimistic scenarios,” Hutchings said in a telephone interview.

As I said, no surprises there. We all remember the soundbites, don’t we? How the insurgency was in its “last throes” and comprised merely of “dead enders.” Just more evidence that reality and Bushco’s world view have had very little, if any, interaction with each other. As many have observed before, it is so very much like the ideologues of the Soviet Union in their heyday.

That was a one party state, too.

One last story. Our super-duper-with-an-extra-large-heaping-of-death-squads head of all US intelligence agencies, John Negroponte has just had his official “Duh” moment:

A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region’s rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said, in an unusually frank assessment.

“If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country … This would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world,” Negroponte said on Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.

Coming from the man under whose watch as Iraq’s ambassador Shi’ite death squads were formed (with US assistance), this is rich in irony. Don’t like the result of your handiwork now, Mr. Negroponte? Silly me. I thought the whole purpose of your previous efforts in Iraq was to acheive precisely this goal — sectarian strife.

Congratulations, sir. Mission Accomplished.

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