From Bloomberg, March 5:

U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Peter Pace said Iraq isn't on the brink of civil war and that there isn't any deadline for withdrawing American and coalition troops from the country.

We recently noted that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US and Israel for the Samarra mosque attack. Now, right on cue, the Iranian armed opposition group Mujadedeen Khalq issues a statement (in the name of its ostensibly civilian wing, the National Council of Resistance) blaming the Iranian regime for the attack! The press release says the group's "president-elect" Maryam Rajavi "strongly condemned Iranian regime's meddling in Iraq and described the Samarra bombing, planned attacks on Sunni mosques, killing of religious leaders, political figures, journalists and others as part of a war that the ruling mullahs in Iran have initiated in Iraq against its people."

Amazing! Finally the light bulb goes on! Why, this man should be director of national intelligence! Oops, he already is! Of course we were warning before Bush went into Iraq that destabilization of the country could spark regional or even world war. But, hey, nobody ever listens to us! From AP, Feb. 28:

Spy Chief: Iraq May Spark Regional Battle
WASHINGTON — 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 Tuesday.

Japanese Anti-War Movement Hosts Iraqi Civil Resistance

by Bill Weinberg

Japan is one of the minor members of Bush's "coalition of the willing" in terms of troop commitment, but the Asian superpower's anti-war movement has made more progress than any other in the world in establishing direct links of human solidarity with the civil resistance in Iraq—groups of the embattled secular left which oppose the US-led occupation and the Islamist insurgents alike.

From a late-breaking AP account, Feb. 22. A day after the bombing of a Shiite market in Baghdad's Dora district, killing 22, comes the destruction of one of Shia's most sacred shrines in Samarra. Somebody is apparently hell-bent on plunging Iraq into civil war at any cost...and perhaps igniting sectarian warfare throughout the Islamic world.

A statement, apparently not yet posted elsewhere on the Web, from the UK branch of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) and allied groups:

Civilised humanity must take a stand in defence of freedom of expression, against Islamists and racists
The recent controversy over some caricatures of Mohammed gave the Islamists an opportunity to wage a hysterical protest internationally. In many cases, this took a violent form and was clearly aimed at silencing those who dared to even portray Mohammed. In these demonstrations - across the world and in London, the very heart of Europe - many of the banners on show were emblazoned with shameful slogans. These included - "Those who insult Islam must be beheaded" and "Freedom go to hell" plus various other fatwas and threats against cartoonists and others who have the temerity to "insult" Islam.

A press release from Minority Rights Group International:

New York, (Jan. 26, 2006) Iraqis head a new list of peoples most under threat from persecution, discrimination and mass killing according to a comprehensive new report released today by Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

From Arab Monitor, Jan. 8:

US occupation troops burst into the Umm al-Qura Mosque compound in western Baghdad and ransacked the offices of the headquarter of the Association of Muslim Scholars. The troops arrested a member of the Association, two employees and two guardsmen. Pictures taken by Reuters TV showed that many doors had been forced open and explosive charges and shotgun shells strewn on the ground, while Christian crosses had been scrawled on the shelves used for deploying the worshippers' shoes.