Iraq is not in a Civil War, and not about to fall into a Civil War

[Ravenseye]

It's not a civil war.

It's anarchy. It's chaos. It's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Civil War sounds so....well Civil. There's no sides. It's criminals, and terrorists, and corruption, and insurgents, and shia, and sunni, and followers of Cleric X, and people who live in this poor neighborhood...

I don't even know if there is a real word to describe what the situation we've created in Iraq is.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. Per The Definition Of Civil War, Yes They Are.

I appreciate the semantics of your argument, but they aren't factual. Civil doesn't mean polite in the context of the phrase civil war. If it had, the phrase itself would never be logical and would always be an oxymoron.

In reality, the civil stands for 'civilian' war then 'polite' war. So based on the real definition of civil war, Iraq is absolutely involved in one.

[catmother]

2. yes they are. when is bushco going to admit it?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

4. Soon As The 'You Cannot Tell The Truth' Spell Is Broken. Never I Guess.

:shrug:

[catmother]

5. there trying to prepare us that it's going to be a long war. condi

was just on hardball and said "it's going to take time".:nopity:

[Ravenseye]

3. There need to be sides in a civil war though, don't there?

What are the sides here? I can think of about 20.

What are their objectives? I have no idea.

Sure not all civil wars have lines of guys in blue and grey uniforms battling over maryland cropland in neat little rows, but I mean doesn't the term civil war sort of imply that there are definate sides fighting for control?

At a certain point with so many sides and no real goals besides continued chaos, doesn't it stop being a civil war and just become anarchy?

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. three major

several minor, but there are sides... what this has as a special bonus are the few (less than 10%) foreign fighters who add spice to this toxic soup

But you can also see that many because it is not only religious divisions, but like anything else in the middle east, tribal

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. civil wars are the most uncivil of all

and by definitions they are in the midst of a classic civil war

[Double T]

8. ...it's called bushworld...............

right next door to livinghell

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Cities decided they were civilized, thats why civil=civil. Not always true

Lots of cities are downright primitive and rude.