Iraq in the words of those who've seen it

Huffington Post's Eat the Press focuses on Newsweek's latest issue, with the cover story devoted to letters, journals and emails from US soldiers lost in Iraq. It's The War in the Words of the Dead, what owner Donald Graham said "...might be the best issue of Newsweek in the 75 years of the magazine." It's part of an ongoing series, Voices of the Fallen.

Eat the Press says the response to this issue in the blog world -- left and right -- has been minimal, and wonders why:

Is it Iraq fatigue? Is it the absence of a political slant either way? (Noted by a family member in editor Jon Meachem's editor's letter as well as on a few blogs). Is it just that it's too real, too heartbreaking?

On the topic of Iraq, the Washington Post had a story about retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey's report on his tour of Iraq, taken in his capacity as West Point adjunct professor: McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq; the full report is here.
Some lines from the report:

Iraq is ripped by a low grade civil war which has worsened to catastrophic levels with as many as 3000 citizens murdered per month. The population is in despair. Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate.
...Three million Iraqis are internally displaced or have fled the country to Syria and Jordan. The technical and educated elites are going into self-imposed exile—a huge brain drain that imperils the ability to govern.
... There is no function of government that operates effectively across the nation— not health care, not justice, not education, not transportation, not labor and commerce, not electricity, not oil production.
... The police force is feared as a Shia militia in uniform which is responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings. There is no effective nation-wide court system.

And more. McCaffrey dares to hope a bit for a better solution but, all in all, pretty depressing.