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The NYT received a copy of a classified briefing given by the US Central Command on the security situation in Iraq. Here's how the NYT describe it:

The conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging, according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times

Take a look at the chart yourself and tell me if that's not an understatement.

Notice the summaries at the bottom of the chart:

“urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.”

Notice how much the gauge has shifted in the last week. And then remember that it has become accepted wisdom that it is acceptable to wait to do anything about this until after the coming election.

UPDATE: Lest you think this report overstates things...

AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - More than 40 Shiites were abducted along a notoriously dangerous highway just north of Baghdad, police said Wednesday, and the death toll from a suicide bombing at a wedding party rose to 23, including nine children.

At least eight other people were either found dead or slain in new attacks Wednesday, including one person killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad's central market, which wounded five others, police Lt. Ali Hassan said. The death toll in the market attack was likely to rise, he said.

SF Chronicle:

Bechtel Corp. went to Iraq three years ago to help rebuild a nation torn by war. Since then, 52 of its people have been killed and much of its work sabotaged as Iraq dissolved into insurgency and sectarian violence.

Now Bechtel is leaving.

The San Francisco engineering company's last government contract to rebuild power, water and sewage plants across Iraq expired on Tuesday. Some employees remain to finish the paperwork, but essentially, the company's job is done.

Bechtel's contracts were part of an enormous U.S. effort to put Iraq back on its feet after decades of wars and sanctions. That rebuilding campaign, once touted as the Marshall Plan of modern times, was supposed to win the hearts of skeptical Iraqis by giving them clean water, dependable power, telephones that worked and modern sanitation. President Bush said he wanted the country's infrastructure to be the very best in the Middle East.

But Bechtel -- which charged into Iraq with American "can-do" fervor -- found it tough to keep its engineers and workers alive, much less make progress in piecing Iraq back together.

"Did Iraq come out the way you hoped it would?" asked Cliff Mumm, Bechtel's president for infrastructure work. "I would say, emphatically, no. And it's heartbreaking."