Likewise, is his co-conqueror Tony Blair, who between sunning himself on Barbados has termed the Iraqi draft document "an important and historic achievement".

According to a report in a British newspaper, Blair's place in the sun is assured when he leaves office. The Sunday Mirror suggests that the prime minister is considering accepting "a highly lucrative position with the Carlyle Group - an American-based investment giant with strong links to the White House and the defense industry...nicknamed 'The Ex-Presidents Club".

While I leave you to mull over that one, let's return to the draft. Some experts suggest the document is nothing less than a recipe for civil war. Bush thinks it represents a beacon toward his mantra of "freedom and democracy" and urges Iraqis to rally around it.

George W. blames Iraqis for their sorrowful plight along with a dwindling number of Americans who still support him - 36 percent according to a recent poll. 

Naturally, the more than 100,000 civilians who lost their lives post-invasion, and the ongoing lack of security and basic utilities have nothing to do with him. Blame "the terrorists" stupid! He naturally forgets to mention there were no terrorists in Iraq prior to the war.

"We can expect...atrocities to increase in the coming months because the enemy knows that its greatest defeat lies in the expression of free people in freely enacted laws and at the ballot box," said Bush on Sunday.

In other words, increased insurgent violence validates US policy. Don't get it? Neither do I, and neither, I suspect, does anyone else with an IQ above 80.

From the president's standpoint, it's unfortunate that more and more US citizens are muttering the equivalent of Eureka (probably unprintable) and displaying thumbs down toward his administration. But will Bush be thrown to the lions?

Perhaps! An increasing number attribute the lackluster economy to the protracted invasion, are infuriated over sky-high oil prices (currently $70 per barrel), and are most of all worried about the military death toll hovering around 1,900.

A burgeoning grassroots movement, coagulated around Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey, has emboldened even Republican senators like Chuck Hagel to finally mention the "V" (Vietnam) word and ask the question: Where's the exit plan? Bush's answer is to send more troops and insist the US will stay for the duration.

As for the Iraqis, the majority is entirely disenchanted with the neocon vision of their country. They simply want the freedom to drive their cars to their favorite coffee house or drop their kids off at school without fear of being shot at a checkpoint or falling victim to a roadside bomb.

Their concerns revolve around a lack of electricity in sweltering temperatures and less around the antics of their US-manipulated leadership in the fortified, luxurious Green Zone, who after weeks of wrangling have come up with a draft text that is hardly worth the paper upon which it's written. 

As it stands, it has been rejected by Sunnis who don't want an Iraqi federation, no matter how loosely termed fearing the slippery slope to a three-way carve-up leaving the substantial Sunni minority without influence and, more importantly, without oil.

Indeed, the document has failed to satisfy either of the big three communities. Most Kurds long for an independent state that encompasses the oil-rich Kirkuk; most Shiites seek either an autonomous south or an overall Islamic state, while the Sunnis want to maintain a unified country and regain some of the power they held when Saddam was in charge.

Those sectarian ambitions are mutually exclusive and US pressure on negotiators simply serves to temporarily paper over the cracks allowing Bush to claim a modicum of victory and smooth an elegant superficial exit - superficial because US bases are set to become permanent fixtures.

Although the negotiating committee came up with some semblance of a constitution, the assembly has refused to ratify its clauses due to Sunni objections. Despite this setback, the constitution can still be placed before the people due to vote upon it in a mid-October referendum.

However, if two-thirds of voters in three Iraqi provinces say "nay" then the government will be dissolved and it's back to the drawing board. In light of a Sunni majority in four Iraqi provinces, the constitution's eventual rejection is more than likely.

By now, Iraq was supposed to be a role model for the region according to the Bush doctrine. Neighboring countries were supposed to be so consumed with envy that they would rush to follow suit, when in reality, most see Iraq as a frightening warning and are rushing, instead, to find a suitable deterrent. 

The word in Washington is "America went to war with Saddam and Iran won". There is more than a grain of truth in this. Iranian mullas are already lauding the fact that Islamic law is set to be a mainstay of any Iraqi constitution and the fact that a united Shiite swathe from the Levant to Iraq is in its nascence.

The anti-war camp may find this amusing, but for many Iraqis it's a worrisome scenario. Most notable is former Bush poster-girl, anti-Saddam activist Safia Taleb Al-Souhail who was nominated as Iraq's ambassador to Egypt.

Pro-invasion Al-Souhail was invited to sit next to Laura Bush during the president's State of the Union address, and went around hugging American mothers who had lost their children in the war but now even she is having second thoughts. She believes the draft constitution is a threat to the rights of Iraqi women.

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women," said Al-Souhail. "But look what has happened. We have lost all the gains we made over the past 30 years. It's a big disappointment."