Is Iraq In Civil War?

Three years to the day after the beginning of the war in Iraq, terrorists have reached a point of "desperation," U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said on CBS's Face The Nation, but on the same day the former Iraqi prime minister argued that civil was is already underway in his homeland.

In a live interview with Bob Scheiffer, Cheney, one of the war's chief architects, echoed the Bush administration's line that the war in Iraq is progressing according to plan.

"The facts are pretty straightforward. The Iraqis met every single political deadline that's been set for them," Cheney said. "They haven't missed a single one."

The vice president said that talk of civil war is overblown and the insurgency is being promoted mostly by terrorist groups.

"There's continuing violence because our adversaries understand what's at stake here, because they know that if we're successful in establishing a democratic government in Iraq, that that's going to put enormous pressure in that part of the world on all of those other regimes and governments," Cheney said.

Returning to the White House from Camp David, President George W. Bush also said the war was progressing.

``We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq. And a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure and will help lay the foundation of peace for generations to come,'' he said.

In a Washington Post column Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued many of the same points. He wrote that the terrorists "seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq."

Rumsfeld added that withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, "would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis."

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said there was no other way to describe the increasing violence across the country.

"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," Allawi told the BBC. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

When asked by Schieffer to address Allawi's comments, Cheney said, "I think the assessment that we get from General George Casey, who's our man commanding in Iraq, from Zal Khalilzad, the ambassador, from John Abizaid, who is the general in charge of Central Command, doesn't square with that.

"Clearly there is an attempt under way by the terrorists, by Zarqawi and others, to foment civil war. That's been their strategy all along, but my view would be they've reached a stage of desperation from their standpoint," Cheney added.

Casey, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Sunday that U.S. troops likely will remain there for the next few years though the numbers will be scaled back as Iraqi forces gain strength.

"I see a couple of more years of this with a gradually reducing coalition presence here in Iraq ... as the Iraqi security forces step forward," Casey said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Casey said he did not think at the time the war began that the insurgency in Iraq would have been as robust as it has been.

Casey said he did not believe Iraq was in danger of falling into civil war, although he said it remained a possibility because of increased sectarian tensions and violence.

"The situation here is fragile," he said. "I suspect it will remain fragile here until we get a new government, a government of national unity, formed."

With the war starting its fourth year, the 133,000 American troops on the ground inside Iraq was nearly a third more than took part in the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein that began in the early hours of March 20, 2003.

At least 2,314 U.S. military personnel have died in the war, which is estimated to have cost $200 billion to $250 billion so far. President Bush says about 30,000 Iraqis have been killed, while others put the toll far higher.

As the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion approached, American troops clashed with gunmen north and west of Baghdad Sunday, and insurgents lobbed a mortar round into Karbala, the holy city south of Baghdad where a million Shiite pilgrims assembled for a major religious commemoration.

Iraqis in the capital expressed unease with the increasing violence, which they said they hoped would have ended by now.

"It is a painful anniversary we were expecting that Iraq would get better," Munthir Rasheed said. "But it is completely in reverse. Iraq has passed through three years which are the worst in its history."

Iraqi police said eight civilians, including a child, were killed in clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad. The town is located in Iraq's Sunni heartland where the Iraqi army and U.S. forces opened Operation Swarmer last week, an airborne campaign to hunt down insurgents.

The Americans said it was the largest "air assault" operation since the 2003 invasion.

During operations in Duluiyah, police said, U.S. troops arrested Col. Farouq Khalil, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official, after raiding his house.

The sweep through villages 60 miles north of Baghdad was prompting growing unease among leading Sunnis. One called it a needless "escalation" at a time of difficult negotiations over Iraq's future government.

U.S. officials have said Swarmer is a sign of how much progress has been made in Iraq because of the participation of the Iraqi army.

Lt. Gen. Pete Chiarelli told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, "Had we tried to accomplish a mission like this 11 months ago, it would have been primarily U.S. forces."

The Iraqi forces are getting stronger, not only in numbers, but in skills, reports CBS News correspondent Lara Logan.

Captain Jonathan Weikel said that the biggest change he noticed when he returned to Iraq on his second tour was how much the Iraqi security forces had improved.

"I would like them to be farther along than they are, that would be great to feel that way, but it's been good to see the improvement."

Iraqi troops and units of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division detained about 80 suspected insurgents as of Saturday, and released 17 of them after questioning, said Lt. Col. Edward S. Loomis, a 101st Airborne spokesman.