Insurgents seize 5 towns near Syria

The news from Iraq is depressing - or has this always been the case but never reported?
Towns near Syria:

A senior U.S. Marine commander said Monday that insurgents loyal to militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had taken over at least five key western Iraqi towns on the border with Syria and were forcing local residents to flee.

Moqtada Sadr again:

U.S. and Iraqi soldiers clashed with gunmen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr early Sunday, trading fire in a long-running gun battle that broke nearly a year of calm between U.S. soldiers and militiamen in the Shiite slums of Sadr City.

Deepening rifts:

Iraq's rushed constitutional process has deepened ethnic and sectarian rifts and is likely to worsen the insurgency and hasten the country's violent break-up, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on Monday.
"The constitution is likely to fuel rather than dampen insurgency," said Robert Malley, head of the think-tank's Middle East and North Africa programme, introducing an ICG report.
"A compact based on compromise and broad consent could have been a first step in a healing process. Instead it is proving yet another step in a process of depressing decline."

This is progress? This is what W, his regime and some Dems want to risk our lives and future for?