I’ve been writing for a while now about post-Maliki options for Iraq, including the notion of a coup d’etat against him with American connivance. There are other options, too. The important thing is, U.S. policy for Iraq is utterly up for grabs post-November 7, and so is what passes for politics in Iraq. Forget Iraq’s elections, constitution, government, and so on – for both Iraqis and American policy makers, it’s back to the drawing board.

In a long analysis of the mess in Iraq and its effects on U.S. policy, the Post quotes that Delphic oracle of the neocon right, Richard Perle, thusly:

"I don't know what the new course would be. The options are extremely limited now. The new course that's necessary is new Iraqi leadership.”

So where would Perle find “new Iraqi leadership”? I wonder whether the neocons aren’t willing to put all their marbles on the Shiite religious right, supporting a coup d’etat of their own that would consolidate the Iraqi army, police and Interior Ministry under a single command, led by a strongman Shiite leader with ties to Dawa and SCIRI, and then throw down the civil war gauntlet to the Sunnis. The idea, then, would be to present the United States with a fait accompli, and a challenge, demanding that Washington support the Shiite side in an all-out civil war against the Sunnis.

Maliki, increasingly defiant of President Bush, seems headed down that path. Maliki, I suppose, hasn't yet read his own political obituary. His comments remind of some TV reality show, "When Puppets Attack."

Specifically, Maliki is making noises about taking control of the Iraqi army. Perhaps that’s defensive, since it’s the army that could overthrow him. But Maliki must also be thinking that if he can get the United States to cede control of the army to the supposedly sovereign “government of Iraq,” then he can unleash the combined might of the Iraqi state against the Sunnis. Shiite leaders are already reemphasizing that the real enemy in Iraq is the “Saddamists and the takfiris,” i.e., the “terrorists.” Never mind that the Shiite death squads are causing the vast majority of the deaths.

I guess Muqtada Sadr is the wild card in all this. It’s horrible to contemplate competing U.S. factions playing out their rivalries in Iraq, since it’s Iraq that will pay the price in continuing carnage.