Numbers show that Iraq civil war is underway.

Despite President Bush's repeated denials, the figures are clear: 900 sectarian killings in a single month in Iraq means a civil war is well under way.

Iraq is a nation of 25 million people. In the United States, that level of killing would proportionately equal almost 11,000 people killed in riots, reprisal killings and sectarian clashes in a single month

By comparison, the 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland from 1968 to 1998 saw 3,600 people killed in a small population of 1.5 million. Proportionately, that would equate to 60,000 dead over 30 years in Iraq, or 2,000 killed per year. Instead, if the current Iraqi violence simply stays at the current level and does not escalate any further, it will take 10,800 Iraqi civilian lives this year. That rate would be more than five times the average rate of the Northern Irish conflict.

This information will have no impact on this administration whatsoever. They cannot accept the fact that their grand experiment did not succeed. But for the rest of us who are reality based we need to start to deal with the fallout of this debacle.

I don't think there is much doubt that the Bush administration's attack on Iraq will have consequences that will affect America for many decades to come. We have shown ourselves to be weak in the eyes of the world and uncaring of their culture and religious beliefs.

We have painted a huge target on Israel and may find ourselves forced to provide military protection for them sometime in the near future. This will be a very damaging undertaking because it will serve to further define the battle lines that define America/Israel vs the Muslim Middle East. We will be plunged headlong into a long term religious war. The belief that we will emerge victorious is foolishness of the highest order. There will be no victory. Only destruction.

This is the world that we are handing our children. If we cannot find a leader to help lift our country out of the pit that we currently find ourselves, I fear that our country will be stuck responding to events beyond our control instead of taking a pro-active approach to rebuilding America's reputation. This cannot wait until the 2008 presidential election to begin, it must start now. The only questions remaining are who and how?