It seems every time you turn around you find another person who should be a staunch supporter of the Bush cabal either expressing reservations or outright abandoning camp. Even tame rats have begun to eye that hawser leading to shore. Remember when you hear such people express reservations, these are the very same people who portrayed anyone objecting to US policy as traitors.

Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed program of privatization.

In an interview to be broadcast on BBC Newsnight tonight, he says: "My preference was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can, and do it with some form of elections ... I just thought it was necessary to rapidly get the Iraqis in charge of their destiny."

Asked by the reporter Greg Palast if he foresaw negative repercussions from the subsequent US imposition of mass privatization, Gen Garner said: "I don't know ... we'll just have to wait and see." It would have been better for the Iraqis to take decisions themselves, even if they made mistakes, he said.

And his fate shows just how poor the Bush cabal is at personnel management

Despite being a protege of Mr Rumsfeld, Gen Garner was the subject of what was alleged to be a White House whispering campaign, describing him as weak.

A year after the invasion, his disclosure of policy differences with the White House highlights the dilemma still faced by the US occupation forces.

That is not a lesson on how to win friends and influence people, it is a lesson in bridge burning - that forge ahead blindly and damn the torpedoes type of attitude that characterizes Rumsfeld.