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Since the destruction of the al-Askariya shrine in Samarra on February 22, 2006, a growing number of commentators has warned that Iraq is slipping into civil war, and that prospects for stability and democracy in Iraq are waning. The Iraqi police and security forces successfully shut down large-scale violence within a few days of the attack as Iraqi political leaders of all parties called for calm. Nonetheless, the ever-precarious Iraqi political process has been continuing alongside insurgent and sectarian violence. 

Which way is Iraq really headed? Is success still possible, or is collapse inevitable? These and other questions will be the focus of a panel discussion with Nathan Brown, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; James Dobbins, director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center; Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and AEI resident fellow Reuel Marc Gerecht. AEI resident scholar Frederick W. Kagan will moderate.