The Grim reaper is working overtime in Iraq. Pentagon report is full of both doom and gloom.

Death squads and terrorists have ramped up attacks on civilians in Iraq, killing more than 1,600 people in cold-blooded "execution-style" slayings in July alone, a Pentagon report said Friday.

Increasing violence is affecting "all other measures of stability, reconstruction and transition," according to the report, which examined the situation in June, July and August.

"Sectarian tensions increased over the past quarter manifested in an increasing number of execution-style killings, kidnappings and attacks on civilians," said the report which is required by Congress.

"The Baghdad coroner's office reported 1,600 bodies arrived in June and more than 1,800 in July, 90 percent of which were assessed to be the result of executions."

The report said the quarter had seen a 51 percent increase in Iraqi casualties and a 15 percent increase in the number of attacks.

Can any of us even fathom this level of death and destruction? What would this do to our sense of safety if it were to suddenly take place in our towns or cities? What might we become when faced with this reality? More civilized? Probably not. We would begin to attack anyone who we perceived to be a threat. It would anarchy.

I heard for the first time today the reason why the administration refuses to acknowledge that Iraq is embroiled in a civil war. Apparently if they identify the conflict as a civil war they have to change the tactics. They can no longer "stay the course" because the course will have changed and it will require a new plan. I am guessing that they do not have a "new plan" or if they do they know that it is woefully underdeveloped and probably will not work.

So they just keep their eyes focused on the imagined positive outcome that they all pray is just around the corner and pretend that the horrible things that are taking place are just the result of the mainstream media's bias.

In other words, nothing is going to change until we change our leadership.

Vote Democrat in 2006. It is quite literally our only hope.