Iraq is total hell. NYT reports on this report indicating about 6,000 people have died in two months in Iraq, with an about an equal number of injuries/casualties, not to mention kidnappings, and organized crime. Over 100 people are dying a day in sectarian violence.

So, a rough calculation brings the death rate in Iraq to about 133 per 100,000 per year. Not to beat a long dead horse, but that's quite a bit more dangerous than DC. About 4x worse really. And that's taking the whole population of the country as the denominator. Since most of the violence occurs in the region of Baghdad and the Sunni triangle containing about 7 million people, the death rate for that area is more accurately described as about 4x that number, or about 500 per 100k per year, or, in DC terms, that's ten times worse than the so-called "murder capital" not that it has been for about a decade. Has Newsmax been informed? Will they run an article, "Baghdad 10 times more dangerous than DC?"

A few more turning points and the place will move from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome all the way to Dennis Costner's the Postman, both in level of post-apocalyptic hell and overall suckiness. The only reason it's not Waterworld is because it's a desert, it easily reaches that level of suckiness.

Is anyone else disappointed that the last turning point, the death of Zarqawi, has had no effect whatsoever on the violence?