IN THEORY, nothing much has changed. Though the violence continues—on February 18th suicide bombers killed at least 11 Iraqis and wounded nearly 60 coalition soldiers in a base at Hilla, south of Baghdad—the plan America announced last November still stands. Under that plan, America intends to transfer power to an Iraqi provisional government by July 1st. In practice, as all of Iraq knows, the details of this transfer of power are looking increasingly foggy. The November plan was itself a Plan B, a much faster procedure than the one Paul Bremer, America’s proconsul in Baghdad, had originally mapped out for giving Iraqis power over their own affairs. But Americans and Iraqis are now awaiting yet another plan, this time from Kofi Annan, the United Nations’ secretary-general. This one, the Americans hope, will enable them to stick to their timetable while keeping the foremost spiritual leader of Iraq’s majority Shia community, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, reasonably happy. Full Story
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