Perspective: Civil war? No, that'll be much worse, Iraqis say

BAGHDAD, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Enraged citizens going from house to house, street to street, killing their neighbours of decades, with security forces powerless to stop them -- that is the nightmare many Iraqis fear if the country sinks into civil war.

The toll of sectarian bombings, shootings and murders which militants are exacting may be appalling, but many Iraqis think it is nothing compared to what genuine civil war would bring.

So for all the debate abroad on whether civil war already exists, and despite U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's declaration that it does, officials here refuse to agree -- partly because they hope the worst can still be averted.

"The situation is bad and it is getting worse," an official from the main Shi'ite political bloc, the United Alliance, told Reuters. "But one thing is certain -- this is not yet civil war.

"I hope we never get there because if we do the killing will be on a massive scale -- the Iraqi people would become extinct."

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