White House Press Corps.org: Press Briefing by National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley (Topic: Iraqi Civil War)

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Press Briefing by National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley (Topic: Iraqi Civil War)
— Wednesday, July 26, 2006 —

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Q Steve, with the number of attacks rising, and with the death toll rising, and in particular with the audacious nature of a lot of these attacks in Baghdad of groups of Sunnis pulling Shiites out, killing them in the street, and vice versa, there's a wide array of political leaders in Iraq that say a low-grade civil war, marked by ethnic cleansing in mixed neighborhoods, in particular, has already begun. The Prime Minister today, when he ended the press conference, said, with God's help there won't be a civil war, which was not a particularly inspiring statement when you listen to the words of it. Does the administration think a civil war has begun? If not, how much -- what else has to happen before you would look at it and say, there is a civil war now raging inside of Iraq?

MR. HADLEY: The President has been clear on that; we do not think a civil war has begun. But I think the point is, is there a problem? Yes. Is the problem involving sectarian violence? Yes. Does it need to have to be addressed if Iraq's democracy is going to flourish and the situation get stable? Absolutely. Is there a strategy to do that? Yes. Prime Minister Maliki has outlined that today. Are we supporting that strategy? Yes. That's where our focus is. We'll let others deal with the semantics. Clearly, there's a problem; clearly, it needs to be solved; and clearly, there's a strategy to do that.

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Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 3:00:00 AM

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