NR: "...a clear statement they're not willing to make."

MW_2006_1128_NR
Click photo to play
Length: 1:11

DON LEMON: Joining us now from Baghdad, CNN's Michael Ware.

Why is the Army hesitant to call the situation in Iraq a civil war, Michael?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, because that's a clear admission of strategic failure on the part of not only the administration but the U.S. military.

To countenance the thought that the American invasion and subsequent occupation, rather than having rose petal-laid democracy rise up from the ashes of Saddam's tyranny, instead to actually unleash a civil war and a sectarian divide of the like unknown before the American presence in this country, is a clear statement they're not willing to make.

As we saw today, in the press briefing by the U.S. military here in Baghdad, General Caldwell dodged around even defining in general terms what the military here would consider civil war, not regarding Iraq. He wouldn't even give the definition of civil war. And one suspects that perhaps it's within his briefing that he's not even meant to use the term -- Don.

LEMON: All right, CNN's Michael Ware, live for us in Baghdad. Thank you so much for that.