Opinion: To leave Iraq would be as disastrous as to remain

There is an idea in mathematics. It describes a series of numbers that is endlessly halved, endlessly approaching but never reaching zero. It is an engine endlessly grinding to a halt but never stopping. That is a perfect model for the endlessly redefined semantics of where Iraq is heading - always moving towards the conditions of civil war but never quite arriving.

Over the past few months a succession of US generals has warned that the country is approaching the conditions of a civil war. Last week, a Congressionally approved Pentagon report suggested that the conditions for civil war had not only been achieved but that they were spreading outside Baghdad. But still, they insist, it is not in actuality a civil war.

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