Is Iraq a Front in the War on Terror?

Iraq is now on the brink of a civil war, according to testimony by the United States’ military leadership.

The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it," Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move toward civil war.

And the troops on the ground agree.

All of which raises anew a question that has been in the air since the war began: Is the war in Iraq part of the U.S. led war on terror? Or is it a separate war, with a separate agenda?

At least trying to answer the question is crucial in order to figure out American priorities in Iraq, and in its effort to combat terrorism. Answering, though, probably requires going back to the beginning of the definitional quagmire.