With few reliable surveys of soldiers’ attitudes, it is impossible to simply extrapolate from the small number of soldiers in Delta Company. But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers over a one-week period with this 83-man unit, most said they were disillusioned by repeated deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war [bold mine-DL], one they had no ability to stop. ~The New York Times

Now it’s possible that these soldiers who have been living and fighting in Iraq for months have been unduly influenced by U.S. media reports about the war, such that they have embraced the view that there is a civil war in Iraq.  On the other hand, it seems more likely that their characterisation tends to confirm what outside observers had concluded some time ago.