All of this goes hand-in-hand with George W. being a uniter. Already, W. has succeeded in uniting that most fractious of all groups in the U.S., the Democrats, to unprecedented levels. Combine that with the Sunnis in the Sunni Triangle and Shias in the South of Iraq now working together. There actually were blood drives among Shias to aid their wounded comrades in Falujah.

The betting line is that the June 30 "hand-off" will go to Ahmad Chalabi, erstwhile convicted bank swindler (Jordan) and darling of the neocons. This would be amazing, especially since W. has been promising 'democracy' to Iraq. Of course, you could hardly have a real democracy based on a plebiscite in Iraq, especially with 65% of the population being Shias. Who knows what ascendant Shias would do in Iraq, have the temerity to vote us out?

Should Chalabi be appointed on June 30 to take over Iraq, we haven't begun to see the blood and treasure that will have to be spent suppressing rebellion. If so, I would change my analogy that Iraq is either like Vietnam ('60-75) or Algeria ('60's) to Afghanistan ('80's), with us playing the role of the Soviets.