The Gamut

"I have appealed to the members of the Governing Council and to Iraqis in every part of Iraqi to be conscious that civil wars do not happen because a person makes a decision, 'Today, I'm going to start a civil war," -- Lakhdar Brahimi

"I've been reading a book about the Civil War and Ulysses S. Grant-and I'm not going to compare the two, don't get me wrong, don't anybody rush off and say he doesn't get the difference between Iraq and the Civil War. The fact of the matter is, the casualties were high, the same kinds of concerns that we're expressing here were expressed then. [The people then] were despairing, they were hopeful, they were concerned, they were combative…the carnage was horrendous, and it was worth it." -- Donald Rumsfeld

The southern Iraqi governorates of Basra, Misan and Dhi Qar plan to split from the Iraqi central government in Baghdad because the interim administration has failed to support Iraqis fighting occupation forces in Najaf, al-Jazeera reported, citing unidentified Iraqi officials.