The state of Iraq....

I'm not quite as thrilled as many because we're still talking 19 US soldiers and 500+ (reported) Iraqi civilian deaths, but, still, it is nominally better than it has been.

Nineteen U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in May, the U.S. military said on Sunday, the lowest monthly death toll since U.S. forces invaded to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the same month plunged to 505 after reaching a seven-month high of 968 in April figures obtained by Reuters from Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries showed.

On the broader front, I think it's important to note that, while there is still lots of violence, none of the topline Iraqi (non-Al Qaeda) factional leaders are openly calling for fighting right now.

However, none of the underlying issues, oil-sharing, powersharing, minority rights, provincial elections, Kirkuk, have been dealt with so the reasons for violence still stand, and I would still think it's likely that any one of those issues could/will reignite the conflicts.

And, of course, we've seen lessenings before....

(PS. Their elections, a very likely flashpoint, have now slipped into November.)