The other night I listened while a guy- a former ambassador, I think - was being interviewed on television. This guy has written a book on the middle east and seems well versed and knowledgeable.

Like Old Guy, he espouses three separate countries. Kurdistan, he said, is already a coherent country: it has its own government, its own municipalities, its own mission statement, its own plans for the future. It also has a lot of the oil.

The south of Iraq, he said, needs to be its own country, with the Shi'a in control of their destiny- and their oil. The Sunni in the north, he said, will have to have a clearly laid out and understood, enforceable share of the oil revenues. For that matter, he said, it is not established that the north does not have oil; it probably does, he said.

But FIRST, he said, the US has to retreat from Iraq, although it can be quartered in neighboring countries. Their presence IN the country, he said, would preclude any progress.

He said he believes that there will be civil war for a long time but that eventually the three entities will - and must - see where the future lies.

He was asked about the current 'government'- will they be abandoned and left in the cold?

The current 'ruling body', he said, is not governing at all.