In one sense, Conservatives are right.

Because this...

(AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

...isn’t a Civil War.

This is Total Civil War.

From the AP...

Iraq civilian toll spikes to nearly 6,000

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 59 minutes ago

Nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, a spike in deaths that coincided with rising sectarian attacks across the country, the United Nations said Tuesday.

The report from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq describes a wave of lawlessness and crime, including assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, torture and intimidation.
Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

"While welcoming recent positive steps by the government to promote national reconciliation, the report raises alarm at the growing number of casualties among the civilian population killed or wounded during indiscriminate or targeted attacks by terrorists or insurgents," the U.N. said in a note accompanying the report.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in violence in Iraq. In the worst attacks, fifty-three perished in a suicide bombing Tuesday in Kufa, and 50 were slain Monday in a market in Mahmoudiya.

According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.

The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.

The report's figures were higher than some other counts, but even the U.N. said many killings go unreported.

According to an Associated Press tally based on its daily reporting, at least 1,511 civilians were killed, in May and June, with at least an additional 289 police and security forces killed.

…
It also details the rise in kidnappings, particularly of large groups of people. On May 17, for example, the report said 15 Tae Kwon Do athletes were kidnapped in western Iraq.

"There is no news regarding their whereabouts," the report said.

Women report that their rights have been rolled back by extremist Muslim groups — both Shiite and Sunni. While under Saddam Hussein's largely secular regime, women faced few social restrictions, they say they are now barred from going to market alone, wearing pants or driving cars.

And children are frequently victims, perishing in large crowds or sometimes even targeted themselves, the report said.

"Violence, corruption, inefficiency of state organs to exert control over security, establish the rule of law and protect individual and collective rights all lead to inability of both the state and the family to meet the needs of children," it said.
The government still has not pursued many allegations of torture and other inhumane treatment in prisons and detention centers, the U.N. said.

Jesus Christ. Nearly 6,000 dead in two months.

Six thousand.

How can you fathom that?

Do you start by simply observing that this is twice the number who died on a pretty Fall day in America in September of 2001?

Or perhaps consider the estimated population of Iraq as of 1997 was 22 million and change, and the population of the United States is a hair under 300 million.

And ask yourself what would we do if factions fighting in the United States killed a proportional number of civilians over the same period of time?

What would we call it if, in the two months between the “Day Without Immigrants” protests and the day they paraded pictures of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s corpse for the cameras, warring factions of Evangelicals Christians had slaughtered 81,000 Americans in the streets of New York, Atlanta, Phoenix and Miami?

Or consider that at First Manassas/Bull Run, 2,708 Union soldiers died, and 1,981 Confederates.

And at the battle of Antietam, approximately 5,000 died on both sides (various figures depends on various definitions, but 5,000 is a fair compromise.)

The American Revolution itself -- the foundational moment when we first started calling ourselves “Americans” -- cost 4,435 American lives.

Now consider this definition of "Total War" from "Total War: The German and American Experiences, 1871-1914" (emphasis added):

"...Total war is fought heedless of the restraints of morality, custom, or international law, for the combatants are inspired by hatreds born of modern ideologies. Total war requires the mobilization not only of armed forces but also of whole populations. The most crucial determinant of total war is the widespread, indiscriminate, and deliberate inclusion of civilians as legitimate military targets."

The battles of Iraq’s Total Civil War are not fought for forts or fields or the high ground. They are fought for time.

They are fought to create and maintain horror and chaos over time.

And since this a Total War whose short- and medium-range goal is control of time and calendar, and not space, I can say three things that are true:

First, during the Battle of The Fourth May, 2,669 Iraqis perished. That is more than all the American forces who died during the War of 1812 (2,260).

Second, during the Battle of The Fourth June, 3,149 Iraqis perished. This is more than all American losses during the Spanish-American War (2,446).

And, third, anyone who still maintains that what is going on in Iraq is not a Civil War is either deliberately lying or insane.