Iraq - Endgame or Stalemate ? .. or Meltdown ?

Stephen Hadley, security adviser to Dubya sent him a memo about Iraq which "leaked" and caused Maliki to sulk for 12 hours before he would break bread with Dubya in Jordan last week.

He said ;

1 . Shi-ite Prime Minister A - Maliki is too close to Moqtada al-Sadre.

2. Shi-ite Prime Minister A - Maliki is out of touch with reality in Iraq and needs to put more effort into national reconciliation.

Penetrating observations that most readers of the Roanoake Herald could have told him.

Now his heirs and wannabe successors Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the arch zealot and Shiite theologian, and Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, have dropped by the White House.

So as the hitherto notionally unified Iraqi Gubment fragments, Iran steps up support for an extension of the Shi-ite Kingdom which Washington likes to call the Shia Arc. Saudi Arabia have very brusquely told Cheney that they will actively support, finance and encourage the Sunnis in Anbar and Syria is none to covertly supporting the rag tag and bobtail of the Baathists.

... and the UK military forces (the very last remnants of the Coalition of the Unwilling) in the South are readying to make a dash south for the door marked EXIT.

Meanwhile Dozy Dubya says he will reveal his revised Iraq strategy in the New Year.

He may not be afforded that luxury.