Iraq's Getting Worse

The testimony from Petraeus is in, but the verdict is still the same. Despite the ability of American troops to suppress much of the violence, the situation continues to deteriorate. The bottom line is that the actions of the Iraqi government against the Mahdi Army have driven Iraq toward a civil war between the American-backed Government and the Shiite population as a whole. This isn't to deny that the surge led to some progress, but the progress is coming at the expense of an ever bigger future explosion.