36 killed in Iraq today!

Today the death count went up by 36 in Iraq.the violence seems to be fast spiralling out of control.with the U.S and the Iraqi forces continuing their operations to the north and the south of Baghdad to hunt the militants down,about 36 Iraqi citizens were killed today as a result of these operations.
What is becoming more and more obvious is that a very large chunk of the Iraqi populace are being killed either as a result of being caught in the crossfire between the militants and the U.S forces or as a result of 'over enthusiastic' action on the part of the Iraqi and the U.S lead forces.either way you look at it,the very population that the United States led alliance swore to protect are fast disappearing into their graves.is this what the war is all about?should not the iraqi people be allowed to live in some semblance of peace and democracy?personally,although i have never been to Iraq i think that the Iraqi citizens had more peace and security under Saddam Husein than they do under the current Iraqi government!