utter chaos in Iraq

As Iraq government collapses, US deaths are surging

It's getting even uglier in Iraq, if that's possible. The Bush-backed government is falling apart as Reuters tell us:

Off the battlefield, Iraq's crumbling national unity government was in crisis after five secularist ministers said they would boycott cabinet meetings until Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki addressed demands they first gave him in February.

The move means that 17 ministers, nearly half the cabinet, have now quit or are boycotting government meetings. The main Sunni Arab bloc pulled out last week and ministers loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr withdrew in April.

Meanwhile, our soldiers continue to bear the brunt of Bush's failed Iraq policy. U.S. deaths are spiking:

August, however, is now on track to be one of the bloodiest months of the year, suggesting a resurgence in militant attacks.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their convoy south of TBaghdad on Saturday, the military said, while a soldier was killed in the capital on Monday by a powerful roadside bomb of a type Washington says is being supplied to Shi'ite militias in Iraq by Iran.

Four other soldiers were killed on Monday in Diyala province, where U.S. troops have launched a summer campaign against militants using the area as a staging ground for car bomb attacks in Baghdad.

President George W. Bush has warned that August will be a bloody month for U.S. forces in Iraq as militants try to influence the debate over the war in Washington, where Democrats in Congress want troops pulled out within months.

So, Bush is finally right about one thing: August is already a bloody month. It's one of the worst things that he could be right about.

Like Bush, the Republican presidential candidates claim to be seeing progress in Iraq. Is this what they're talking about?

(Americablog)