I don't quarrel with the idea that Iraq is the second most unstable, "failed" state in the world, as revealed in the latest (2007) Failed States Index put out by the Fund for Peace. (You can read the whole thing here.)

But I do quarrel with the view of Pauline H. Baker, the Fund's president, who says that their message is that Iraq will break up into pieces. "We have recommended ... that the administration face up to the reaility that the only choices for Iraq and how and how violently it will break up." That is a statement breathtaking in its arrogance. I don't know what Iraq experts the Fund consulted -- it isn't clear from its web site -- and Baker herself doesn't seem to have a lot of Iraq expertise. Yes, everyone knows things are bad in Iraq. But it's simply not true, despite what Joe Biden and Leslie Gelb think, that Iraq's break up is a foregone conclusion.