Allawi Says Civil War; Cheney Not So Much

So, who determines when a war is a civil war? Is there some grand poobah who stands up and declares that "sectarian strife" can now be called "civil war"? Or, do we all just sit around counting the number of people dying in that so-called "strife" every day until it automagically becomes a civil war?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said Iraq had not fallen into a civil war that insurgents were trying to incite, and predicted success despite the constant violence three years after the U.S. invasion.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had earlier said on BBC television that Iraq was nearing the "point of no return" and had already plunged into sectarian civil war.

Who do you believe? A man who mistakes a Texas lawyer for a quail and promptly fills him with buckshot or the former prime minister of Iraq who actually lives over there and has witnessed this so-called "sectarian strife" every single day? A man who polls at 19% and who will say anything to maintain his delusions about the neocon global domination theory or a man with no political points to score? A man who knows nothing but Republican talking points or a man who was left with the ruins of the illegal Iraq war?

You decide.

civil war - WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) :

civil war
n : a war between factions in the same country