Via the University of Michigan, you can’t call this “good news” given the cost but you can surely call it “better than the alternative.” The Kurds want their own state, as we’ve known all along, but then the Kurds aren’t the big problem. The jump in overall Muslim opinion in just 11 months’ time is amazing; if only there were some way to transfer it to Maliki’s crackpot party and their equally suspicious confreres.

Of all the various mistakes Bush has made, I wonder if in the end the killer won’t turn out to be his support for Maliki over Allawi, Adel Abdul Mahdi, or some other Shiite alternative.