"Step back a pace, and that's actually good news."

I'd agree. The better news was a report I heard on NPR saying that Iraqi's didn't trust or support this Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. They thought he was trying to set himself up as a Muslim Saddam. Good sense in both issues.

flattop, you've described the Catch-22 in this for Bush. If the US continues alone (ignore the 30 or so other countries already there or repeated attempts to get the UN or NATO involved, if very late in the game), he's refusing to cooperate with the international community. When he asks the international community for help, he's trying to get soldiers from other countries so US soldiers don't have to. No way to win between those extremes, is there?