The situation confronted by Cheney and Bush is that when US troops finally get out of Iraq, depleted, decimated, exhausted, traumatized and demoralized, Iranian commando/politico/reconstruction teams will set up shop throughout the Shiite 2/3 of the country and establish political and economic order and security. It's a done deal, just on hold while Cheney and Bush squander what remains of US military, diplomatic and economic power on the splurge.
This is working out quite well for Iran, possibly just as Iranian Shiite Ahmed Chalabi and his INC and other exiles intended when they suckered Cheney and his merry band of neocons into invading Iraq with promises of being greeted with flowers, finding WMDs, ties to Bin Laden, followed by democratic election of a unified government that would welcome US oil interests and allow permanent US military bases, etc. (Before the US invasion of Baghdad, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress maintained a $36,000-a-month branch office in Tehran - funded by US taxpayers - in 2004 the NYT broke a story that Chalabi passed information to the Iranians advising them that U.S. intel had broken their code.)
As things are playing out now, eventually there will be stability under Shiite theocratic rule with strong ties to Iran controlling most of the Iraqi oil fields. Saudi Arabia will probably do likewise for the Sunni lands, and Kurdistan will stand on its own, with alliances to Iran. This realignment of power in the mideast will be frightening to many and is very risky for all, but it's well underway.
A few months ago Saudi Arabia summoned Cheney for an intense meeting to discuss the above prospect.
Since March 2003 we have, however unwittingly, fought and killed Sunnis almost exclusively while Shiites generally stood down and watched. Shiites took control of the government apparatus, which then supported Shiite militias conducting ethnic cleansing of Sunni neighborhoods. US taxpayers funded, trained and armed Shiite militias while being told they were non-sectarian, just defending Iraqi democracy.
Recently, General Petraeus began funding and arming Sunni militants in a big way, and US troops have recently launched raids on Shiite militias. Of course US policy has often backed both sides in the Sunni vs. Shiite wars, but this change in policy seems to indicate that Cheney has finally caught on that the Shiites he has propped up to control Iraq are working with Iran just like Chalabi was, and the outcome of his war in Iraq is likely to be a vastly more powerful Iran.
Thus, the new strategy seems to be to dial down the support for Shiites while ramping up support for the Sunnis that US forces kicked out four years ago, to try to counterbalance the Shiite rise to power.
If so, then most likely attacks by Shiites on US troops will increase rapidly as they see Sunnis enjoying the same kind of support they were getting from Cheney. Here's a sample: More than 85 rocket and mortar strikes killed at least 16 people in the 5-square-mile Green Zone between February and June, the UN reported.