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Article: Breaking up is hard to do; President George Bush and his policymakers insist there is no civil war in Iraq; few outside Washington would agree. As Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurd battle for supremacy, as the daily death toll spirals out of control and men like Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the most moderate of Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, call it a day, hope diminishes and the situation for Iraqis looks increasingly desperate.
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- November 1, 2006
- Author:
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THWARTED BY IRAQ'S worsening sectarian bloodletting, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, the most moderate of Iraq's Shi'ite leaders, abandoned his efforts to rein in his sect's murderous militias on 3 September and told aides there was nothing he could do to head off all-out civil war. "I will not be a political leader any more," he told his aides. "I am happy only to receive questions about religious matters."
Sistani, long revered as Iraq's paramount religious leader and a symbol of traditional Islamic virtue, had once been able to bold Shi'ite militants in check. But he has become increasingly disillusioned with Iraq's fractious and often self-serving ...