define: civil war

The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq states that the country is indeed going through what they define as 'civil war.' No shit. Why has it taken this long for the term to catch on? Perhaps because it conjures up images of Confederate and Union soldiers dying in droves. Well, yeah, that's what's going on in Iraq, only there are a lot more civilians dying too. Somebody should've thought this through. I blame the entire administration for the oversight. Even if someone lower down had thought it through and was silenced, they should've come forth to the press to shine a guiding light on our understanding of the inner workings of the hypocracy (as in a form of gov't) going on in Washington.

Dang, I'm glad I moved away from that {insert higher power of choice}-forsaken place...