Civil war yet?

The latest statistical analyses have several commentators saying, or at least strongly hinting, that Iraq is officially in civil war mode.

Nevertheless, I must say that the hemming and hawing over definitions of a civil war seems to me a worthless excercise. I was growing tired of the civil war rhetoric as of last August; I'm plum exhausted now.

Meanwhile, Gareth Porter muses that the US will continue playing with fire.

"Last week's attack by U.S.-led Iraqi paramilitary forces on a building that Shiite leaders claim was a mosque may have marked the beginning of a new stage of U.S. policy in which Iraqi forces are used to carry out military operations against Shiite militia forces -- especially those loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr," he contends.