:"I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence we encountered" in Iraq.—Vice President [[Dick Cheney]], [[National Press Club]] in Washington, D.C., June 19, 2006. [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=alTj0kZnWubQ&refer=us]
"Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, [[Iraq]] is disintegrating as [[ethnic cleansing]] takes hold on a massive scale," Patrick Cockburn [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article548945.ece reported] in ''The Independent'' (UK), May 20, 2006.