Civil War, Shmivil S'mores

From C&L [1], Bush offers another string of wisdom pearls [2] for us lowly plebes:

 

"My attitude is that a young democracy has been born quite quickly. And I think the Iraqi government has shown remarkable progress on the political front. And that is is that they developed a modern constitution that was ratified by the people and then 12 million people voted for a government.

Which gives me confidence about the future in Iraq, by the way. You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box. And a unity government is working to respond to the will of the people. And, frankly, it’s quite a remarkable achievement on the political front."

 

But if we’re so far from having created one of the most destructive civil wars in global history, then why are we currently drawing up plans [3] for just such a contingency?

The Bush administration insists Iraq is a long way from civil war, but the contingency planning has already begun inside the White House and the Pentagon. President Bush will move U.S. troops out of Iraq if the country descends into civil war, according to one senior Bush aide who declined to be named while talking about internal strategy. "If there's a full-blown civil war, the president isn't going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire,"

…

The administration hasn't made its definition of full-blown civil war explicit. But in March, when Iraq's former prime minister Ayad Allawi said the country was already fighting a civil war, Bush disagreed, noting the existence of Iraq's nonsectarian Army and government. If the country did someday meet the definition of civil war and the U.S. pulled out, military officials warn, the consequences would be disastrous. "All the neighboring powers would be drawn in," said one senior military official who has examined the scenarios and is not authorized to speak on the record. "It would become a regional war."

Meanwhile, after proposals to dramatically expand the authority of military courts [4], our practically Gandhi-esque Attorney General [5] (hey, at least Ashcroft is outty):

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the US government could "indefinitely" hold foreign 'enemy combatants' at sites like the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We can detain any combatants for the duration of the hostilities," said Gonzales, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee [6].

"If we choose to try them, that's great. If we don't choose to try them, we can continue to hold them," he said.

In related news, Bush postpones the 2008 elections [7]. (yes, it’s satire … c’mon people! Oh, but the rest of the post was real. Do I have to explain everything?)

[8]