In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the past 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and an estimated quarter of the country's middle class.

The school system offers another clue: Since 2004, the Ministry of Education has issued 39,554 letters permitting parents to take their children's academic records abroad.

Since the bombing of a shrine in Samarra in February touched off a sectarian rampage, crime and killing have spread further, paralyzing neighborhoods and smashing families. Now, on the brink of a new, permanent government, Iraqis are expressing the darkest view of their future in three years.