What "last throes" looks like

“The insurgency has more public support and is demonstrably more capable in numbers of people active and in its ability to direct violence than at any point in time."

-- A senior Pentagon official quoted in today's NYT, which notes that July's fun included 2,625 roadside bombs, up from 1,454 in January and the highest ever. Wounded U.S. soldiers (mostly from bombs): 518 in July, up from 287 in January.

"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

-- Dick Cheney, June 20, 2005