How To Start a Civil War in Iraq

Brent Scowcroft, National Security Adviser in the first Bush administration and a long-time opponent of Bush Jr.'s invasion of Iraq, warned today that the upcoming elections in Iraq, rather than ending the insurgency and strengthening democratic forces in Iraq, could actually start a civil war. The country looks to be on the verge of civil war right now, Scowcroft said, and an election that Sunnis see as a sop to the Shiite majority could topple Iraq over that precipice and possibly signal the end of Iraq as a nation.

Scowcroft made these comments at a forum sponsored by the New America Foundation, a "centrist, nonpartisan Washington think tank," according to the Los Angeles Times. At the same forum, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser in the Carter administration, said a stable government in Iraq is possible -- "if we are willing to put in 500,000 troops, spend $200 billion a year, probably have the draft and have some kind of wartime taxation."