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Specter: ‘We Have To Face The Fact’ That Iraq Is A Civil War

This weekend on CNN’s Late Edition, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) made the case that U.S. troops in Iraq are “being sucked slowly into a civil war with disastrous consequences.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) was asked if he agreed with Reed’s view that Iraq is in a civil war. Specter flatly said “yes” and added, “I don’t think there’s any point, Wolf, in hiding the facts. I think we have to face the facts.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/speciraq.320.240.flv]

Specter’s view mirrors that of many of Iraq’s leaders, U.S. troops in Iraq, and seven in ten Americans.

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Full transcript:

SEN. JACK REED: This is a civil war. And we are being sucked slowly into a civil war with disastrous consequences.

BLITZER: Is it a civil war already, Senator Specter, as many of the critics are suggesting?

SPECTER: Yes.

BLITZER: That’s your flat answer. So on this specific point, Senator Specter, you clearly disagree with the president and vice president.

SPECTER: Well, I think it’s a matter of semantics, but when you have the insurgents as violent as they have been, and when you have the three major factions in Iraq killing each other, and you have the level of violence, I don’t think there’s any point, Wolf, in hiding the facts. I think we have to face the facts.