John Burns: “The Americans see in this an opportunity to try and draw those Baathist insurgent groups into the political process.”

The idea that you have a political leader, the prime minister, right involved in the operational chain of command, picking targets, picking who you go after and who you don't go after.

There's no doubt that the resignation of the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has had a liberating effect. There's no doubt there is now a freer air about this.

The message of which is you don't control anything. And of course part of that message even perhaps a large part of that message is directed at the Congress in Washington, D.C.

The Maliki government -- and in a sense, who can blame them -- has been preparing for some time for an eventual American military withdrawal and an all- out civil war.