From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Iraq's future. The battle continues.

Hello again, I'm Arunalni, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International,

the daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Last week, two massive truck

bombs killed 100 people in downtown Baghdad and wounded a thousand more, a serious blow to

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. He'd been dismantling blast walls and claiming Iraqi forces

could maintain security now that U.S. troops have pulled out of the cities. The death of a rival

leader today has increased political uncertainty is the time ripe for another Sunni insurgency? Will the Kurds start a civil

war? Iran and the U.S. are competing for influence in Iraq. Will American troops be dragged

back in or are U.S. interests best served by continuing to withdraw? On reporters's notebook later, the legacy of U.S.

Senator Edward Kennedy. First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio

International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John

D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation,

and the Rockefeller Foundation and its campaign for American workers. More at rockfound.org.

Hello again. Mormon Alney, back with To the Poet. Massive truck bombs in Baghdad last week

dramatized the potentially violent nature of sectarian differences, even as Prime Minister

Al-Maliki claimed to have security well in hand. Will political instability lead to civil war?

Will Iran extend its influence in Iraqi affairs? Should the U.S. continue its troop withdrawal?

First, this news update, the so-called liberal lion of the U.S. Senate, Democrat Edward

Kennedy of Massachusetts, succumb to brain cancer last night at the age of 77.

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