Does anyone trust the word of the U.S. anymore...?

From the N.Y. Times:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 16 — In an abrupt reversal, the United States and Britain have indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly and an interim government by the end of the month.

Instead, top American and British diplomats leading reconstruction efforts here told exile leaders in a meeting tonight that allied officials would remain in charge of Iraq for an indefinite period...

Then this gobbledygook doublespeak, to make it seem alright:

Mr. Bremer [the new civilian administrator], who was accompanied by John Sawers, a British diplomat representing Prime Minister Tony Blair, told the Iraqi political figures that the allies preferred to revert to the concept of creating an "interim authority" — not a provisional government — so that Iraqis could assist them by creating a constitution for Iraq, revamping the educational system and devising a plan for future democratic elections.

"It's quite clear that you cannot transfer all powers onto some interim body, because it will not have the strength or the resources to carry those responsibilities out," The Associated Press quoted Mr. Sawers as saying. "There was agreement that we should aim to have a national conference as soon as we reasonably could do so."

Whenever that happens to be....

As recently as 11 days ago, Jay Garner, Bremer's predecessor, said the core of a new Iraqi government would emerge "next week, or by the second weekend in May."

And on April 28, the United States and Britain sponsored a political gathering of about 300 Iraqis and supported their call for a national conference to meet by the end of May to select a transitional government.

Do they look like they're in-over-their-heads and in disarray?

Zalmay Khalilzad, described in the article merely as President Bush's "envoy to the Iraqi opposition," was not that long ago, heir apparent to the Iraqi presidency. He was't even in Iraq for this most recent meeting.

Bremer is quoted as saying he would meet with the opposition leaders for further discussions in two weeks.

Riiiighhht...!

All I can say is, if the Iraqi opposition is surprised, they haven't been following U.S. foreign policy for years.

Complete story here.