Independence Day?

The stealth transfer of sovereignty in a blank-walled side room of the prime minister's office, the American civilian authorities flying out within hours, without ceremony. It wasn't exactly the helicopters straining off the embassy roof in Saigon as the North Vietnamese advanced on the city, but it was uncomfortably close.

Who knows what in the world happens to Iraq now. On one extreme is civil war. On the other extreme is p.r.-perfect progress to free elections and recognizable democracy---the outcome the Bushies expected, but which is perhaps even less likely than the other extreme.

Our intuitions tell us to watch for a Saddam-like combination of carrot and stick, and an authoritarian if not dictatorial regime. Among the coming attractions could be: how will Americans react to alleged insurgents getting their hands hacked off?

But of course the real mystery that has us all in suspense...what's going to happen to Halliburton??????