The most important element in a civil war is that all participants wear either blue or gray. For example, the situation in Iraq is not a civil war. It is, in fact, an unacceptable level of sectarian violence between people of the same nationality and country within regions that have been defined as civilly controlled but not within the parameters of things that aren’t civil wars. The American Civil War was the war that helped shape America. It was clear to every one of America's allies that the liberals must be stopped.