We've been so preoccupied talking about what Obama, McCain and Clinton are talking about, that we (and I mean the press, too) seem to be spending very little time examinig a new development in Iraq that has the potential to spiral out of control.

In a country that the US has invaded, defeated and occupied and that we are presumably defending from external enemies, our NATO allies, the Turks, have mounted a major military operation in the Kurdish north. They appear to have our tacit support, or worse, we are simply unable to dissuade them from doing so. This is an insult to the Iraqi government we have helped install, and to the Kurdish community, our strongest supporters in the most peaceful and prosperous part of the country. It is also a profound humiliation for the United states. Perhaps this situation can be resolved soon, without escalation. But even so, it is a sorry comment on our inability to influence events or even protect our friends in the region. Our enemies must be rejoicing, our friends weeping, and everyone else laughing uncontrollably.

We congratulate ourselves on the military successes of the surge, but we have failed to exploit them to realize any political goals. Iraq is still a gangster state, divided in multiple ways and rife with corruption and crime and unable to defend itself from enemies, foreign or domestic, completely dependent on American power to survive at all. The economy and infrastructure are in a state of near collapse, and the time we have bought for them with our blood and treasure has been criminally squandered. The tactical victory has not translated to strategic gains, not even palpable progress towards those gains, and like everything else about this war, it has been a dismal failure.

We have not defeated the insurgency, they are just refitting while we systematically defeat ourselves.