A 3rd Gulf War?

The Financial Times reports that a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, warns that "the US may soon find itself in the midst of 'a third Gulf war against the Iraqi people'" and "blames bad planning by the US administration and the low priority given to 'conflict termination' and nation-building strategies by the Pentagon" for the intractable situation the US now faces.

The study's author, Anthony Cordesman, also suggests that the foreseeable future in Iraq won't be pretty: "The most likely case still seems to be a mixed and poorly co-ordinated US nation-building effort that does just enough to put Iraq on a better political and economic path," he writes, "but does so in a climate of constant low-level security threats and serious Iraqi ethnic and sectarian tensions."