US population in 1880 was about 50 million.
620,000 soldiers killed.

1.24% of the US population.

Iraq current population 25 million.

When they are well on their way to 310,000 dead, then we can call it a civil war. At it’s current rate, it will come to that point in 300 years.

It would be an advancement for those who wish to see Iraq disintergrate, rather than take on the appearance of a mulitcultural society.

Just caught Joe on Harball.

He believes that if it is partitioned, then the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shia will go their own way and terrorism will die out.

Wasn’t Holbrooke concerned about Turkey coming into conflict with the Kurds? Lot easier to do if the region is perceived as seperate.

Wouldn’t this seperate the Sunni’s from from having some say in the spending of the oil? I think the Sunni section would quickly become the next Lebanon, where the militas will hold all the power, and the army they have will be a token one. Syria be in a position to annex western Iraq. It would be a breeding ground for terrorism and a battle that Al-Queda could win. Like Afghanistan with better real estate.

His belief is that Iraq is a civil war.

Let’s take a look at some civil wars-

start with wikipedia definition-
“A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight for political power or control of an area.”

The factions are not within the same culture, society, or nationality(this last one would be arguable)-this is not a civil war, but Biden’s would like the semantics to lead to the inherent conotations associated with the word ‘civil war’.

Usual combatants in a civil war have a specific ideology from which they would govern, but I don’t see any Iraqi public support for the insurgency as they present no alternative form of governance.

Biden’s closing argument on Hardball?
‘no one has another plan.’

I thought that was the strength of the neo-con argument for addressing the ME thru invading Iraq. Democrats offerred no other plan.

Seriously, I’ve thought for a while that some kind of confederation similar to what the U.S. government should be might be better than trying to force everybody into a European style parlimentary democracy or what the U.S. government actually is. Biden does a good job of laying it out.