NBC calls Iraq conflict civil war, at odds with White House

WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) NBC News today branded the Iraq conflict a civil war -- a decision that put it at odds with the White House and that analysts said would increase public disillusionment with the US troop presence there.

NBC, a major US television network, said on ''The Today Show'' that the Iraqi government's inability to stop spiraling violence between rival factions fit its definition of civil war.

The Bush administration has for months declined to call the violence a civil war -- although the US general overseeing the Iraq operation said in August that there was a risk of this -- and a White House official today disputed NBC's assessment.

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said while the situation on the ground is serious, neither President George W Bush nor Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki believe it is a civil war.

Several analysts said NBC's decision was important as the administration would face more pressure to pull US troops out of Iraq if the US public comes to view the conflict as a civil war.

The decision ''certainly is a major milestone,'' said Ted Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.

''That does change the terminology and is likely to change the perspective of viewers, and one suspects other media outlets will sooner or later follow suit.'' Public weariness with the conflict -- which has has now lasted longer than US involvement in World War Two -- helped Bush's Republican Party lose control of Congress in November 7 elections.

Analysts said Americans would not tolerate US troops being used as referees between warring Iraqi factions.

''It almost looks as if the Americans who are getting killed are getting killed almost accidentally, while the Iraqis are getting killed on purpose,'' said Stephen Hess, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.

Sectarian violence between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq has increased dramatically in the past week. Multiple bombings in a Shi'ite neighborhood of Baghdad last Thursday killed more than 200 people and drew reprisal attacks in Sunni neighborhoods.

Jordan's King Abdullah said on Sunday that civil war was looming in Iraq and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned today that the country was nearly in civil war.

Bush and Maliki are scheduled to meet in Jordan this week to discuss ways to stem the violence.

Experts differ on how to define a civil war and which conflicts fall into that category. While Shi'ites and Sunnis are not organized into formal armies, the rising level of sectarian violence has led many to conclude that a de facto civil war is under way.

The United Nations estimates that 120 Iraqis die each day, while some 100,000 flee the country every month.

''It's getting silly for the administration or anyone else to deny there's a civil war,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who said the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine marked the transition from an anti-American insurgency to civil war.

Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said he does not believe that the country has yet descended into civil war because most of the population is not involved in the violence.

But Thompson said the US will find it impossible to maintain a military presence in Iraq if there is a civil war.

''The bottom line on the American role is it will leave if it feels it has to take sides in order to continue operating in Iraq,'' he said.

Gen John Abizaid, the commander of US military operations in the Middle East, told a Senate committee in August that ''the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war.'' Reuters DH VP0040