Yesterday Colin Powell took the stage in Dubai and described the US presence in Iraq as consisting of three separate phases: (from the AP report)

The invasion phase went as planned. But the second phase, the military occupation, was “badly handled.” Mistakes during the second phase led to the third, “which could be considered a civil war.”

Whether or not Powell is attempting to repair his image with the Washington press, it is interesting to note that he reserves his harshest criticism for his former employer when he is abroad.

Another State Department employee sounded off against Administration policies at an academic forum in Washington last night, claiming that the Anglo-American relationship is “disappearing right before our eyes.”

Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclosed that for all Britain’s attempts to influence US policy in recent years, “we typically ignore them and take no notice — it’s a sad business”.

Speaking at an academic forum in Washington on Tuesday night, he answered a question from The Times, saying: “It was a done deal from the beginning, it was a onesided relationship that was entered into with open eyes . . . there was nothing. There was no payback, no sense of reciprocity.”

The Times went on to report that Myers is considering early retirement. Of that, I have no doubt. I speculate that Myers is also positioning himself to undergo an image transformation from lowly-analyst-turned-rat to that darling of the the press: whistleblower. The Times reporter included the “rumor” that Myers attended the “Downing Street Memo” meetings. Just the ticket for John Conyers and the agenda-less Democrats to have something to do for the next two years.