Iraq continues to get worse...

Civilian deaths in Iraq increase
July's toll is the highest of the war, bolstering claims that the security plan isn't working

An average of more than 110 Iraqis were killed each day in July, according to the figures. The total number of civilian deaths that month, 3,438, is a 9 percent increase over the tally in June and nearly double the toll of January.

The rising numbers indicate that sectarian violence is spiraling out of control, and seemed to bolster an assertion many senior Iraqi officials and American military analysts have been making in recent months: That the country is already embroiled in a civil war, not just slipping into one, and that the American-led forces are caught between Sunni Arab guerrillas and Shiite militias.

Only this morning on CNN's American Morning a deputy commander at Central Command tried to tell Miles O'Brien (sorry I can't find a transcript to link to) that things are getting better in Iraq. Because there are more trained Iraqi police and army, etc. But that training isn't doing ordinary Iraqis much good as they die at an alarming rate. For example, in one month as many Iraqis were killed as were murdered in Atlanta, GA all last year.

And we're to believe that things are improving in Iraq?

I usually tell my students that the worst lie you can tell is the one you tell yourself. I still think that's true. But the magnitude of that lie is compounded when you tell it to the American people.

GP