• Is Iraq knackered?

Sure, the Americans are taking credit for not blinking:

Deaths fall as Baghdad celebrates
 
The number of civilians killed in Iraq is continuing to fall, data published by Iraqi ministries suggest.  The December death toll was 480, down from almost 900 two months previously and about 2,000 in December 2006.

US commanders attribute the reduced violence to their "surge" strategy which involved sending thousands more American troops to Iraq in 2007.

Is it, however, just more likely that everyone is just completely exhausted with the loss of life and waste of opportunity.  But...

A bomb killed nine people in Baghdad hours after the city celebrated New Year for the first time since 2003.