Civil War

Spear or Arrow?

Editors all over the country today are wrestling with whether or not to call the situation in Iraq a civil war.

And they are doing so because politicians and academics have somehow framed the use of civil war as one having serious ramifications for our Iraq policy.

Here is Webster’s New World College Dictionary definition of civil war: “War between geographical sections or political factions of the same nation.”

 So is Iraq caught up in civil war or the more commonly used sectarian violence?

I would suggest that the label makes little difference in Iraq where Sunni and Shiite death squads roam the streets free of government control, killing civilians at an alarming rate, with American troops caught in their deadly cross fire.

And I have to question how many of our readers really care what we call it?

So while politicians argue over our choice of words, I think the best guide for editors is that old Wrigley gum ad:

“Some call it a spear, some call it an arrow.”