Meanwhile in Iraq

CIA officers in Iraq are warning that the country may be on a path to civil war, current and former U.S. officials said yesterday, starkly contradicting the upbeat assessment President Bush gave in his State of the Union address.

..."Both the Shiites and the Kurds think that now's their time," one intelligence officer said. "They think that if they don't get what they want now, they'll probably never get it. Both of them feel they've been betrayed by the United States before."

These dire scenarios were discussed at meetings this week by Bush, his top national-security aides and the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said a senior administration official who requested anonymity.

...Several U.S. officials acknowledged al-Sistani is unlikely to be "rolled," as one put it. As a result, Bremer's plan for restoring Iraqi sovereignty and ending the U.S. occupation by on schedule is in peril.

The Bremer plan, negotiated with the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council, calls for caucuses in Iraq's 18 provinces to choose the interim national assembly, which in turn would select Iraq's first post-Saddam government. The first direct elections wouldn't be held until the end of 2005.

..."We've always favored elections," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said after he and other top Bush aides briefed senators. "The only question is — the tension was, if your goal is to get sovereignty passed to the Iraqis so that they feel they have a stake in their future, can you do it faster with caucuses or can you do it faster with elections?"

Rumsfeld was responding to comments by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who opened the door yesterday to elections in Iraq earlier than planned.

...State Department officials said no changes to the Bremer plan are being considered formally.

...One option being discussed informally is to delay the transfer of power until later in 2004, which might give the United Nations time to organize some sort of elections, one official said. But that is almost certain to be opposed by White House political aides who want the occupation over and many U.S. troops gone by summer to bolster Bush's re-election chances, the official said. "It's all politics right now," he said.   article

It always was.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.