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U.S. Generals foresee Iraq partition

Julian Borger, Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton Taylor

Washington/London: Two senior U.S. Generals have publicly agreed that Iraq was slipping towards civil war and partition.

``I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war,'' General John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate on Thursday.

General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, agreed that ``we do have the possibility of that devolving into civil war'' and said only Iraqis could ultimately stop the slide. ``Shias and Sunnis are going to have to love their children more than they hate each other,'' Gen. Pace said.

The Generals were responding to questions on the views of Britain's outgoing ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, which caused a stir in the U.S. after his valedictory memo to British Prime Minister Tony Blair was leaked to the BBC.

Mr. Patey wrote: ``The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy.

"Even the lowered expectation of President Bush for Iraq — a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror — must remain in doubt.'' —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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