Tony Snow: Iraq Civil War? Depends on the Metrics

So, is Iraq in civil war? According to Tony Snow, Bush’s press secretary, it depends on the metrics?

Q: Well, my question now is, what is the definition of the White House of the words "civil war?"

MR. SNOW: That’s an interesting question, and there’s no clear answer to it, because the one thing — I spent a lot of time thinking about this last week, and I’m not sure you get any two people to agree. For instance, if a civil war is a situation in which you have two clearly identified organizations with clearly identified leadership, both actively soliciting support from the populace and fighting over territory, authority and legitimacy — it probably doesn’t apply. If you have as your definition of a civil war something that involves the entire land mass — north, south, east and west — doesn’t apply. But some people think the sectarian violence you’ve seen — centered largely around Baghdad, and you also have some terrorist activity in Anbar, a considerable amount — they think that is civil war. So it depends on which metrics you use for doing it. And frankly, I gave up on trying because there are any number of people who have different measurements.

According to the dictionary, the metrics are really quite simple:

Main Entry: civil war
Function: noun
: a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country.