Are US/UK Spies Destabilising Iraq?

So how bad is Iraq these days, really? Well, just read this article from WaPo. For example, here's just one small para on the supposedly "safe" city of Basra:

In the port city of 1.5 million people on the banks of the Shatt al Arab river, residents say the local police force of 13,600 has become as much an instrument of fear as security, Washington Post correspondent Anthony Shadid reported last month. Musabah, the governor of Basra, acknowledged in an interview that the police were infiltrated by religious parties. His police chief, Hassan Sawadi, told the British newspaper the Guardian that he had lost control over three-quarters of his police force and that militiamen inside its ranks were using their posts to assassinate opponents. Soon after, Musabah said, the Interior Ministry ordered Sawadi not to speak again publicly.

The article also says that local Iraqi police claim that two Brits (whose capture sparked a British "rescue" / "attack" on the local jail) were planting bombs. Say what???

Juan Cole has a very careful analysis of the story. The Brits were reportedly SAS soldiers dressed in Arab disguise. If they were really planting bombs, I suspect there is an unspoken plan by Rumsfeld et al to ensure Iraq remains unstable for a long, long time. Because of course, we can't pull out the troops till the country is stable, can we?