This isn't a civil war?

[gridlore]

In Iraq, during July, an average of 110 civilians were killed in sectarian violence every day. At least 3,438 civilians died violently in July, an increase of 9% over June.

Iraq has a population of about 26.8 million. To put things in perspective, if the same level of violence was happening in the United States, the numbers for July would be an average of 1,228 killed daily, for a total of at least 38,368 in the past month.

and the Bush administration keeps insisting that there's no civil war.

Comments

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

So as long as a rebel army avoids being conventional, there is no civil war? Is this consistent with past US use of the term "civil war" in international diplomacy?

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much, yeah. And no. International diplomacy is more vague.