And this is what Iraq is looking like:

An Iraqi provincial governor was blown up by a roadside bomb on Monday in what appeared to be an escalation of a power struggle between rival Shi’ite factions that threatens to destabilize the oil-producing south.

Mohammed Ali al-Hassani, governor of Muthanna province, was on his way from his home in the city of Rumaitha to Samawa, the provincial capital, when his convoy of nine cars was hit by a powerful roadside bomb, provincial officials said.

Of course this is how Maliki tries to fix things:

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for Iraqis to exercise restraint, saying the perpetrators were seeking to “drown the province in chaos.”

Like the people really listen to him.

To show how bad things are really getting in Iraq, yesterday seven active duty U.S. soldiers did something unusual. They banned together to write an op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times. In this piece, they talk about how the surge is not working. The most worrisome part is when they talk about how the Iraqi police and army are helping with these roadside bombs:

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two others when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. The truth is that battalion commanders, even if well meaning, have little to no influence over the thousands of obstinate men under them, in an incoherent chain of command, who are really loyal only to their militias.

Considering the fact that seven soldiers had the nerve to speak up publicly like this, it is safe to assume that a large number of people serving in Iraq share the same concerns.

Make no mistake about it, the politicians here who help continue this war are as guilty as the people planting the bombs. They are complicit in the fact that they keep our soldiers in a place they are not wanted and constantly targeted. And I say the politicians here because we have members of both parties who allow this war to continue. Every single one of them needs pushed out of office and not forced to remain out of office for good.