Iraq in Fragments

78 dead in Baghdad on the same day that the US undertakes a new offensive.

Muqtada al-Sadr wants to march his troops into Samarra to protest the bombing of the Al Askiriya Mosque, which would touch off major civil strife.

Mortar attacks in the Green Zone nearly hit Prime Minister Maliki's office.

Iraq is named the second most failed state in the world by a UN report.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to stop this inevitable slide toward oblivion in Iraq. Our presence is not leading to political reconciliation, security, or even basic infrastructure. Get out. And leave no damn residual force, because there's nothing 50,000 troops can do somehow BETTER than 150,000. (I've soured on Richardson, but his call for absolutely no residual force in Iraq is commendable, though I suspect it's for political reasons, to differentiate himself from the field.