The Civil War Meme

It seems to have become a Media Talking Point. Personally, I never understood the cosmic importance of calling it a "civil war." I'm sure there's some arcane point of international law that the left uses to argue that our being there is illegal, as they did during Vietnam, but that's the stuff of John Kerry, circa 1972.

Why has Vietnam become the paradigm for everybody in the media? I'd think they'd be more suspicious of all these old hippies with their bald heads and gray ponytails.