Allawi the new Saddam?

A work colleague and I had a standing joke when the situation in Iraq started going pear shaped after President Bush's notorious "Mission Accomplished" message. We imagined the Bush chairing the US cabinet, lots of serious faces arranged around a large table, all looking grim after the latest atrocity.

After some discussion about what to do, a voice pipes up; "What we need is a strong man to bang heads together and keep all the factions in line! Someone, well, like, 'what's his name?'"

Clicks his fingers as he remembers. "Saddam! That's the type of guy we need!" he says.

How little we thought that the parody may turn into truth. The story of , if true, is a disaster for the new Iraqi state. It means a continuation of western sponsored authoritarian governments that have been a feature of the region for over a century.