WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- "Iraq is already in a state of serious civil war," a leading U.S. analyst has warned in a new report.
"Current efforts at political compromise and improving security at best are buying time," Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke chair in strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a leading Washington think tank, wrote in the executive summary to his revised report "Options for Iraq." A draft version of the report was circulated Friday.
"There is a critical risk that Iraq will drift into a major civil conflict over the coming months, see its present government fail, and/or divide or separate in some form," Cordesman wrote.
If this happened, the United States "cannot simply 'stay the course,' and rely on its existing actions and strategy," Cordesman wrote. "It needs new options to reverse the drift towards a major civil war and political failure."
"There are no truly good options that can guarantee success and there are many bad ones," he wrote.
Cordesman recommended that the United States "should avoid unilateral options and seek to negotiate new incentives with the Iraqi government and its allies."
