PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The United States may have weeks, not months, to avert an all-out civil war in Iraq, a California adviser to the Congressional Iraq Study Group warns.
"The civil war is already well along. We have no way of knowing if it's too late until we try a radically different course," said Larry Diamond, one of a panel of experts advising the Iraq Study Group, preparing a range of policy alternatives for President Bush.
The group is charged with delivering an independent assessment of the situation in Iraq in the U.S.-led war.
"There's a sense among many people now that things in Iraq are slipping fast and there isn't a lot of time to reverse them," Diamond tells The San Francisco Chronicle.
The study group's co-chairman, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, has said he believes "stay the course" in Iraq is no longer a viable strategy.
