Just because we "handed over" "sovereignty," don't let your attention slip (like the media has) from the godawful mess that is Iraq right now.

Updates here and here.

Key quote [from Juan Cole]:

It seems to me possible that this recent outbreak of fighting has initiated an endgame. It is hard to imagine Allawi and the Americans putting up with this challenge. The question is whether they can crush it without fatally wounding their own authority. I still think "Iran 1978" is the worst case scenario for Iraq, and a massive crackdown on the Sadrists, with Muqtada killed or captured, could set that ball rolling.

Al-Obeidi says the Americans allege that they have killed 300 militants in Najaf. I at first thought this must be a typographical error for "30." [But it is being repeated on US television news this afternoon. If 300 is correct,it is an enormous toll for a couple of days. In all the fighting in April and May less than 2000 Mahdi Army fighters were killed. I wonder if the Mahdi Army has gotten careless and come out in the open, and were mown down by AC 130s. Or has the US figured out where the safe houses are and just bombed them?]