From the BBC:

Iraqis 'fleeing rising violence'

Thousands of Iraqis are fleeing the country every day, in what the UN's refugee agency describes as a steady, silent exodus.

The number of Iraqis claiming asylum in the West is growing, says the UNHCR.

The agency also says the number of internally displaced is growing, with some 365,000 Iraqis uprooted this year.

Earlier this week the Baghdad government estimated that about 300,000 people had been internally displaced since February.

It was in February this year when Shia Muslim shrines in the town of Samarra were destroyed in bomb attacks blamed on Sunni militants.

[…]

The agency says that last year about 50,000 Iraqis returned from neighbouring countries. This year only 1,000 did.

[…]

Most of those Iraqis who have fled to Syria and Jordan have not registered with the UNHCR, in what the agency calls a "silent exodus".

The UNHCR says that tens of thousands more are moving on to Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, the Gulf States and Europe.

Statistics from the first half of this year show that Iraqis were the biggest single national group claiming asylum in Europe, while the number claiming asylum in industrialised countries had risen by 50% compared to the same period last year.

I remember various human rights and relief organizations setting up refugee camps in preparation for the initial invasion of Iraq... and the crowing from some on the right when they went (mostly) unused. That they are in more use now, along with ever larger numbers of refugees to other countries three years into the occupation of Iraq is just one more sign of what a dismal failure this entire illegal enterprise has been.

One a related note, the Lancet recently come out with a report (pdf) stating:

"We estimate that as of July, 2006, there have been 654 965 (392 979–942 636) excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war, which corresponds to 2·5% of the population in the study area. Of post-invasion deaths, 601 027 (426 369–793 663) were due to violence, the most common cause being gunfire."

A number of people at different sites have been picking it apart, here are just a very few:

Obsidian Wings - Hilzoy
Stayin' Alive - Cervantes
Crooked Timber - Kieran Healy
Crooked Timber - Daniel
Alas, a Blog - here and here - Ampersand

From the Asia Times:

Three part series by Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry, "How Hezbollah Defeated Israel"

The portrait that we give here is also limited. Hezbollah officials will neither speak publicly nor for the record on how they fought the conflict, will not detail their deployments, and will not discuss their future strategy. Even so, the lessons of the war from Hezbollah's perspective are now beginning to emerge and some small lessons are being derived from it by US and Israeli strategic planners. Our conclusions are based on on-the-ground assessments conducted during the course of the war, on interviews with Israeli, American and European military experts, on emerging understandings of the conflict in discussions with military strategists, and on a network of senior officials in the Middle East who were intensively interested in the war's outcome and with whom we have spoken.

PART 1: Winning the intelligence war
PART 2: Winning the ground war
PART 3: The political war

Looks like an interesting series, although I have not read all of it yet.

"Finding out that Pennsylvania didn't actually have a border with Mexico, the ever clever Raj decided that if the border wouldn't come to Raj - Raj would have to go to the border. So off to Texas, Bhakta went."

Go - read the rest - it's hilarious... I can't resist giving a small hint though... :

A few miles from the border, though, somebody always stops you and asks who you are, your citizenship status and other pertinent questions.

Such as, "Where did you get the elephant?"

There is wacky and then there's Republicans.

Might add bits of news as I come across them. Then again, maybe not.