Don't bother with the domestic news about Iraq

Notice how civil war has all but escaped our front pages?

Today, the International Herald Tribune explains that from the inside telling, Iraq has officially been lost already. The IHT argues that a media-savvy insurgency started to develop a year ago after America started twisting publicity and threatening reporters: the media-savvy insurgency is now mature, and they've declared victory as they see it; America has no future in Iraq.

Le Monde echoes this sentiment and reports:

Non seulement l'Irak va s'effondrer, a-t-il dit, mais le sectarisme va se répandre dans toute la région, et même l'Europe et les Etats-Unis ne seraient pas épargnés.
Trois ans après l'offensive américaine en Irak, la crainte d'une guerre civile plane / | 20.03.06 / ;

Which is to say, the new insurgents are fighting their own war, a war whose menace we should have sensed when the dome of Samarra fell. The French know that their own country is populated by sects whose allegiance goes back to Iraq, and they can only imagine what a Europe at war between rival Islamic sects would look like.

Time to stop talking about Saddam and negotiating with both sides, one might think.


Technorati Tags: iraq, international, insurgency, media