According to NBC what we are seeing in Iraq is a civil war, and they explain why they are now going to describe it that way.

…..the situation in Iraq with armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas can now be characterized as civil war.”

The White House denies it is a civil war stating

MR. SNOW: — (inaudible) — civil war? No, but you have not yet had a situation also where you have two clearly defined and opposing groups vying not only for power, but for territory. What you do have is sectarian violence that seems to be less aimed at gaining full control over an area than expressing differences, and also trying to destabilize a democracy — which is different than a civil war, where two sides are clashing for territory and supremacy.

Dictionary.com defines a civil war as

A war between factions or regions of the same country.

The Wikipedia takes the defination a bit further

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. Political scientists use two criteria: the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second criteria is that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side.

I am really not sure what point Snow is trying to make about “territory” in another White House redefinition of common words, the “territory” being fought over is Iraq.

The continual denial by the White House in this matter is confusing at best, I am reminded of the Iraqi Information Ministers statement accusing the American forces of lying about their progress during the initial invasion of Iraq

“They want to deceive their people first because now they are in a very shabby situation.”