Political scientists who study civil war have proposed various refinements to this rough definition to deal with borderline cases. There is little reason to believe that if the United States were suddenly to withdraw its forces, they would not continue their battle to control or shape the government. military, they are also fighting the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and killing large numbers of Iraqis. Here's why: Although the insurgents target the U.S. According to this notion, there will not be civil war in Iraq until we see mass mobilization of sectarian communities behind more or less conventional armies.īut a more standard definition is common today:ġ) Civil war refers to a violent conflict between organized groups within a country that are fighting over control of the government, one side's separatist goals, or some divisive government policy.īy this measure, the war in Iraq has been a civil war not simply since the escalation of internecine killings following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, but at least since the United States handed over formal control to an interim Iraqi government in June 2004. For some - and perhaps especially Americans - the term brings to mind all-out historical conflicts along the lines of the U.S. Politics aside, however, the definition of civil war is not arbitrary. troops still have a constructive role to play. Calling Iraq a "civil war" implies yet another failure for the Bush administration and adds force to the question of whether U.S. Does the conflict in Iraq amount to a civil war? In many ways, the public debate over this question is largely political.
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