Pacific Views

Civil war or not civil war?

Dubya and the apologists for the ongoing disaster in Iraq keep insisting that, while there may be danger of the country falling into civil war, Iraq isn't there yet. Journalists such as Chris Albritton and Mideast experts like Juan Cole have argued that, not only is there an Iraqi civil war now, but that war has been going on for awhile.

In an article at Salon, Cole tries to settle the civil war argument once and for all. For this magpie, the following source quoted by Cole does the job:

"Sustained military combat, primarily internal, resulting in at least 1,000 battle-deaths per year, pitting central government forces against an insurgent force capable of effective resistance, determined by the latter's ability to inflict upon the government forces at least 5 percent of the fatalities that the insurgents sustain." (Errol A. Henderson and J. David Singer, "Civil War in the Post-Colonial World, 1946-92," Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, May 2000.) '

If you want to shut down those Dubya apologists and right-wingers, reading Cole's whole article will give you plenty of ammunition.

[Paid sub or ad view req'd at Salon]

Posted by Magpie at March 24, 2006 01:09 PM | Iraq | Technorati links |