NOT ALL CIVIL WARS ARE CREATED EQUAL: Jonah Goldberg notes the magic power of the words "civil war"--when applied to Iraq:

Sen. Joe Biden leads the magicians who’ve seemed to convince everybody that it never makes sense to get involved in a civil war. In March, he screamed from the Senate floor: “I’m so tired of hearing on this floor about courage. Have the courage to tell the administration, ‘Stop this ridiculous policy you have.’ We’re taking sides in a civil war!”

Biden’s not alone. It’s become a standard talking point for most major opponents of the Iraq war. The Democrats’ Iraq-withdrawal point man in the House, John Murtha, says we’re “caught in a civil war” in almost every interview, as if this is the geopolitical equivalent of “I’ve fallen and can’t get up.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said last week that, “We stand united ... in our belief that troops are enmeshed in an intractable civil war.”

The assumption behind this gambit is obvious: Declaring it a civil war is like blowing a whistle at the end of the game. There’s nothing left to do but pack up the equipment and go home.

Question: as it becomes increasingly clear that there is a civil war going on in Gaza among the Palestinian Arabs between Hamas and Fatah, will we hear similar cries that the US should distance itself and that the creation of a Palestinian state is not practical at the present time--or will the civil war become an excuse for the US to get even more deeply involved in providing money and arms?

Just how far will the US be willing to go in pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into that bottomless pit known as the PA?

Technorati Tag: Hamas and Gaza and Fatah and US.