Bash's quagmire: Iraq's civil war turns up heat at home

Scotsman.com News - International - Bash's quagmire: Iraq's civil war turns up heat at home: "THEY had come for Friday prayers at noon. Then 'the roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies', said one survivor of the vicious suicide bombings that killed more than 80 people worshipping in two mosques in the Iraqi town of Khanakin.

Largely Kurdish Khanakin had been thought a safe haven from the violence plaguing the country. So much so that local security was the responsibility of the newly-trained Iraqi security forces, not the occupying coalition troops.

The bombings were another indication that the insurgency is at least as concerned with punishing and murdering Shia and Kurdish Iraqis as it is with killing US troops.

Meanwhile, two car bombs exploded outside Baghdad's al-Hamra hotel, killing six civilians and injuring 40. Just another day in Iraq. Just another reminder that Iraq is currently being torn apart by a conflict that is a civil war in all but name.

The president of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, told Turkish television that if war broke out his party might have no option but to declare independence, ending any prospect of a unified Iraq. 'May God save us from civil war, but if others start fighting among themselves and there is an outbreak, we will have no other alternative.'

If all-out civil war is an imminent possibility in Iraq, Iraq, it has already broken out, figuratively speaking, in Washington as enthusiasm for the war is rapidly waning there. The idea of an immediate withdrawal of US forces is no longer confined to left-wing Democrats, long known for their hostility to the military and suspicions of US interventions overseas.

Enthusiasm for "staying the course" is diminishing on the Republican side of the political aisle as well, with patience for a prolonged engagement slowly but surely evaporating.

Aware of the president's "as Iraqis stand up so we will stand down" rhetoric, Republicans are demanding that the Iraqis do more themselves.

So far, 2,078 US soldiers have died in Iraq and the feeling is growing in Washington that the US has sacrificed enough for the future of Iraq. As Senator John Kerry put it: "You can feel the ice breaking...""