NO, WE'RE NOT IMPERIALISTS

But we sure love their reports.

As the United States scrambles to end a dispute with Shia leaders over plans to elect an interim government in Iraq before July, it has emerged that American commanders are seeking to reach out to tribal leaders by relying on a report devised in 1918 by Britain, the country's then ruler.

Lieutenant-Colonel Alan King, head of the Tribal Affairs Bureau set up by the US-led coalition last month, admitted last week that he had been referring to the pages of the British report to fathom Iraq's network of tribal sheikhs - regardless of the fact that it dates back to the First World War.

The revelation is not likely to improve confidence in the ability of the US to sort out the deepening muddle over how it means to relinquish political power to the Iraqi people by this summer. The plan to create an interim government before a 30 June deadline has been in doubt since objections were raised last week by the powerful Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. His words set off mass demonstrations against the proposal in southern Iraq on Thursday.

One of the arguments made by opponents of the war, as well as opponents of the Bushies' execution of the war, is that so many of the things that have gone wrong since "mission accomplished" could have been easily predicted before the beginning of the conflict, but either weren't, or werent prepared for. This revelation, that we're using friggin Sykes-Picot-era intelligence, does not inspire me in the least.