I hate to break away from Utah mine collapse coverage just as Lindsay Lohan, in the state for more rehab, might make an appearance but…

The Iraqi government is falling apart.

…five more ministers announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings — leaving the embattled prime minister’s unity government with no members affiliated with Sunni political factions.

Clueless State Dept. calls Sunni boycott “very healthy political debate”

…The new cracks in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government appeared even as U.S. military officials sounded cautious notes of progress on security, citing strides against insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq but also new threats from Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

…The Cabinet boycott of five ministers loyal to former Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi left the government, at least temporarily, without participants where were (sic) members of the Sunni political apparatus — a deep blow to the prime minister’s attempt to craft reconciliation among the country’s majority Shiites and minority Sunnis and Kurds.

The defense minister is from a Sunni background but has no political ties and was chosen by al-Maliki.

The Allawi bloc, a mixture of Sunnis and Shiites, cited al-Maliki’s failure to respond to its demands for political reform. The top Sunni political bloc already had pulled its six ministers from the 40-member Cabinet of al-Maliki, a Shiite, last week.

So there are no Sunnis at all in the Iraqi Cabinet anymore. But hey, the U.S. State Department isn’t worried. That’s because they’re also clueless.

“There’s a very healthy political debate that is going on in Iraq, and that is good,” [State Department spokesman Sean] McCormack said. “It’s going to be for them (the Iraqi people) to make the judgments about whether or not that government is performing.”

What we need in this country is a very healthy Iraqi-style debate on whether our government is performing.