A Civil War historian in Iraq, an article well worth reading. I have had the same thoughts, but while reading Eric Foner's magesterial "Reconstruction." I was reminded of the flagrant terorism of the early Klan and the solid south.
so is Iraq a civil war?

Why a Historian Based in Iraq Couldn't Help but Draw Parallels to the Civil War: "As a Civil War historian that conflict was inevitably in my mind as a silent reference point in evaluating my experience in Iraq. For example, on my first Routine Daylight Patrol, as our column left Camp Fallujah�s final checkpoint, I stared out the window and was reminded of Petersburg, 1864. The day was cold and wet and the area between the barracks and outer perimeter was a long, depressing stretch of foliage-denuded kill zone. Rows of freshly bulldozed defensive berms might easily pass for trenches or, as they were once called, parallels. Large Hescoe barriers (named after the manufacturer) were filled with soil and stacked to form walls virtually impenetrable to small arms� projectiles; in 1864 these were called gabions, soil-filled straw baskets of about the same size which appear so prominently in photographs of the Petersburg fortifications. "