Will Somebody Please Define Civil War For Me

ACTON: I couldn't let the third anniversary go past without acknowledging Rumsfeld's Folly. I mean I could go on and gloat about how right I, and other opponents to the war, were but that seems to trivialise the thousands of Iraqis who have been thrust into one of the world's deadliest current conflicts. Between 20 and 40 people die from an element of the insurgency everyday. That's not the brink of civil war, it's well beyond the edge in free fall. The only question is, how far to the bottom?

I was reading Salam Pax's seminal blog Where is Raed? I came across a post from before the war where he quoted an article from a journal put out by a neocon think tank outlining plans for post war reconstruction. It warned against: "radicals in Iran and Syria [who] may see U.S. troops in the country as an attractive target for terrorist operations." Not too mention disgruntled Iraqis.

Nevertheless the Tri-Lateral Keepers of Freedom bluster on, and the world feels even more dangerous than in those first horrible moments after September 11.

In addition, radicals in Iran and Syria may see U.S. troops in the country as an attractive target for terrorist operations,