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The Fourth of July visit to Baghdad by US Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated all too clearly that Iraqi politicians have declared their independence from Washington.

For a second time Biden failed to persuade rival faction leaders to moderate their differences and act in the best interests of their divided and violent country, now in seventh place on a list of failed states topped by Somalia.

In his previous intervention, Biden turned up in the Iraqi capital to plead with the Maliki government to agree to the participation of more than 500 candidates excluded from the March 7 parliamentary elections on the basis of an allegation that they were members of the outlawed Baath party....