This (from USA Today) is a bit disturbing:

U.S. plans elite Iraqi force for security

The U.S.-led coalition is recruiting Iraqis for an elite volunteer unit that would fight fellow Iraqis resisting the occupation of the country.

...the new unit, to be made up of volunteers already in the army, would spearhead counterinsurgency warfare....

An elite counterinsurgency force -- sounds sort of like the old Iraqi Republican Guards, or the Fedayeen Saddam. What will this force be called -- the "Fedayeen Bush"?

*****

Meanwhile, The New York Times suggests that the June 30 "transfer of sovereignty" will be even more of a sham than we suspected:

The Bush administration's plans for a new caretaker government in Iraq would place severe limits on its sovereignty, including only partial command over its armed forces and no authority to enact new laws, administration officials said Thursday....

Several European and United Nations diplomats ..., and some American officials, said that if the American military command ordered a siege of an Iraqi city, for example, and there was no language calling for an Iraqi government to participate in the decision, the government might not be able to survive protests that could follow....

Asked whether the new Iraqi government would have a chance to approve military operations led by American commanders, who would be in charge of both foreign and Iraqi forces, a senior official said Americans would have the final say....

Hey, not to worry -- it's only until elections take place, and after that everything will be hunky-dory and free. And everything's going so well in Iraq right now that that should all happen in no time, right?