The civil war in Iraq seems to be much more mild than some had been predicted. Many pundits painted a doom and gloom scenario out of control. Yet we see in time period in Iraq that the civil war is reduced in duration. Generally civil wars do involve other nation states supporting one or the other. Ours surely did. Both the North and South had outside support. The Iraqi situation is no different. But all in all these things are to be expected by anyone who studies history and our war planners definitely have studied up on these things.

A US General has said that many Iraqi insurgent attackers are paid hundreds of dollars to join the resistance. In fact many insurgents who are planting roadside bombs are paid up to $150.00 for doing so. This is not to be unexpected and it should not be all that surprising either. What is more important is who is paying for this. If the money is coming from Iran, this is a critical situation especially if it is coming from the government itself. Nothing should surprise us, it very well could be coming from there and we must follow the money to put a stop to this tactic of motivating bomb planters with money.

Recently I had a conversation with a gentleman in a coffee shop who informed me that we were losing the war in Iraq. I thanked him for this vital information and asked him how he knew? He said I heard all about it on TV. Oh, well then that is confirmation I can now take to the bank? I met another gentleman who was from Jordan originally who said we will never stop the violence, everyone in the Middle East is crazy. He of course is happy to be residing in the United States now and has no intention of ever going back, not even to visit.

It is going to take some time and as in any civil war there will be conflicting views and deaths will result from such fighting. History shows this. There is no easy way to have a civil war, although this one is quite mild in comparison to others in human history, thanks to the allied support. We did good and things are going relatively well considering, despite what the TV says from time to time. Think about it.