Denial

"One day we will not be able to stop a popular revolution." -Sheik Bashir al Najafi, one of the top four Shiite leaders in Iraq.

There is Civil War in Iraq, and no one wants to see it.

If the number of casualties might begin to shed some light on the growing unrest in Iraq: the Baghdad morgues are reported as full and well beyond their capacity. Around 3,000 Iraqis were murdered in July, many of these bodies found dumped after kidnapping and torture, topping the estimated 25,000 Iraqi civilians who have died this year from the violence of the "civil conflict" category. The estimated death toll this week for US troops reached 2,579 since the occupation began.

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reports that Shiite and Sunni communities in Iraq -an estimated 160,000 people- have been displaced by continued sectarian violence, kidnappings and murders, with families swapping houses to establish religious ghettos that might protect these communities faced with impotent and, in cases, untrustworthy and corrupt Iraqi police. The religious segregation, it is predicted, will destabilize plans for a peaceful coexistence between Shiites and Sunnis and further agitate the growing violence; this is not to mention the drawing of geographical lines between religious communities that could become the fragmentary boundaries to mark emerging regions as nations with desire for autonomy.

At the end of July the Pentagon decided to extend the tour of 4,000 US troops, relocating them to Baghdad admist growing violence in the capital city, a prolongation that will take the US occupying forces in Iraq from 127,000 to over 130,000 US soldiers by the next rotation expected in the fall.

And while the Bush administration and UN ambassador John Bolton have blocked the international community's attempt at an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebannon, Iraqi "insurgents" are finding it easier to recruit and attack US occupying forces in Iraq.

Iraq Resistance Gains Steam. "'Attacks against US forces have increased, particularly since the Israeli military offensive on Lebanon began,' Anbar police officer Yusuf al-Dailemi told the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency. 'Dozens of attacks are being carried out every day against US troops in the Al-Anbar province, western Iraq.' Dailemi further said in recent days attacks on the Americans forces hit a record high of 50."

Yet there are efforts from US designed and Kurdistan funded propoganda to sell an image of a peaceful Iraq to potential investors. This week "Kurdistan: The Other Iraq" will be launched in TV and print ads, as well as a national tour to promote the "peacful Iraq" that the media apparently has chosen to ignore. "The ad campaign is the brainchild of veteran Republican public relations firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers, last seen in July 2005 doing PR for the 'Truth Tour,' a week-long trip to Iraq by conservative radio talk-show folks," the Washington Post reports. "The idea then, we [at the Washington Post] are told, was 'to report the good news on Operation Iraqi Freedom you're not hearing from the old-line news media . . . including the positive developments and successes they are achieving.'"

Denial? Who said anything about denial?