Thoughts on the Iraq situation
There has been much to do about one of the American news networks beginning to use the term "civil war" to describe the conditions in Iraq. The plain English meaning of the term "civil war" is "a war between political factions or regions within the same country" (source: dictionary.com). I am not certain I would classify what is going on in Iraq as civil war. But, all this begs the question then of what exactly is Iraq involved in, if not civil war? On first blush, one might be inclined to say de facto anarchy , but I am not sure if that term is completely accurate either, since, at least theoretically, you can have non-violent anarchy (again I stress in theory ), if anarchy is simply lack of government. There is some semblance in Iraq of government, inept as it might be. I think the rhetorial problem of definitions here revolves not only the modifier "civil" but also "war" itself. I think this is the trap that we walked into in Iraq in...