Here is Derb in The Corner yesterday:

“With increasing fed-up-ness among the US public, and also the US military,

if I were an Iraqi of any stripe, I’d be getting into position for the

post-Occupation civil war. And that, it seems, is just what Iraqis are

doing.”

Now here is Amir Taheri, one of the most sapient commentators on Iranian and

Iraqi affairs, writing in America’s Newspaper of Record

this morning:

“More importantly, perhaps, the new administration [i.e. of Iraq] has not

acted on its promise to bring the various Shiite and Kurdish armed militia

under government control. This has led to suspicions that at least some of

the parties within the Coalition government wish to maintain their private

armies alongside the new national army being built by the U.S.-led

Coalition. This could be seen as a signal that those parties are not yet

convinced that the current period of transition would lead to a stable and

democratic Iraq in which they would not need such private armies.”

Not yet convinced, hm? Now why would that be, when, after all, it must

surely be obvious to everyone that “the current period of transition” will

“lead to a stable and democratic Iraq”?