Former Secretary of State, MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, has spoken. She has suggested that maybe the US colonial authority in Iraq should not after all surrender authority to the Iraqis at the end of June, as if the transfer of authority is real in the first place. But the US has lost authority in Iraq. The US can only maintain some control by virtue of the projection of tens of thousands of troops in the country, and the use of violence. Hannah Arendt argued that if you have power, you do not need violence. And if you need violence, you really do not have power.