New Report Paints Bleak Picture of War in Iraq

By Voice of America News

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Dec 1, 2006 - 6:20:25 AM

WASHINGTON: A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research and analysis organization, paints a bleak picture of the war in Iraq, and says Americans will have to accept what it calls a high-risk, high-cost strategy in order to reverse the country's slide into civil war. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Washington.

The report's author, Anthony Cordesman, a senior military and national security analyst with the center, is a former director of intelligence assessment for the secretary of defense.

Cordesman, who has made numerous trips to Iraq, says there is no doubt the conflict there has become a civil war, and there is a critical risk the violence will get much worse in the coming months.