How Bad is it in Iraq?

Try this on for size. 5 Soldiers were killed today in seperate instances. In addition, an American diplomat and 3 private security contractors.

One thing that seems to fly under the radar (for me as well) is the fact that Iraqi's are dying by the thousands. I'm not talking about those fighting our troops, I'm talking about in what is clearly becoming a civil war. Last week over 167 citizens of Baghdad were killed in 14 seperate bomb attacks (570 wounded). The next day 40 more died. The day after that 21 were killed. The next day? 52 were killed, followed by 7 the very next day. We done yet?

nope.

There were 30 killed (and counting) the day after. That's about 2 people an hour.

I know there are some really brave and decent Iraqi's trying to work out a democracy there, and i hope the succeed, but what, exactly has to happen before we star saying there's a civil war going on over there?