Purple finger of death

From the Independent:

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: "The parties have moved to plan B." He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. "There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west," he said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will spend the next two days meeting with aWol and other government officials. As dreadful as that is likely to be for him, I'm guessing he won't be in any hurry to go home. According to the White House, Maliki is bringing several of his ministers with him--including the oil minister (big surprise there). Can you say "government in exile?" I knew that you could.

The Independent is rather cynical about Maliki's visit:

The switch of American and British media attention to Lebanon and away from the rapidly deteriorating situation in Baghdad is much to the political benefit of Mr Blair and Mr Bush.

"Maliki's trip to Washington is all part of the US domestic agenda to put a good face on things for November," a European diplomat in Baghdad was quoted as saying.

I'm not so sure that the attention Israel-Lebanon is getting will really work for aWol. I mean, how long can the president be obviously working solely for the benefit of another country before people start to notice? Yeah, I know, but I'm looking for hope anywhere I can find it. Then again, won't Maliki's visit force attention back to the Mess-o-potamia? In truth, anywhere you look in Bush World it's a disaster. I watched the NBC News tonight--even they were having trouble polishing these turds.