LiberalOasis doesn't like to speculate with minimal evidence, so consider the following merely something to ponder:

Could it be that Saddam's execution is part of the "Shiite Tilt" strategy?

The White House deliberations about a "Shiite Tilt" were reported several weeks ago by both Laura Rozen of War and Piece and The Washington Post.

The W. Post reported:

On the political front, the administration is focusing increasingly on variations of a "Shiite tilt," sometimes called an "80 percent solution," that would bolster the political center of Iraq and effectively leave in charge the Shiite and Kurdish parties that account for 80 percent of Iraq's 26 million people and that won elections a year ago.

Vice President Cheney's office has most vigorously argued for the "80 percent solution," in terms of both realities on the ground and the history of U.S. engagement with the Shiites, sources say.

And Rozen reported:

This option, described to me as a fallback position supported by Cheney's office and elements of the National Security Council, would have the U.S. abandon the immediate goal of national reconciliation and instead pick a side -- the Shia.

The "unleash the Shia" option would have the United States back a Shiite coalition that would include SCIRI leader Hakim and his Badr Brigades as the core of an Iraqi Army under the direct control of Prime Minister Maliki.

Even as the United States sided with the Shia, [National Security Adviser Stephen] Hadley's memo makes clear that the United States would at the same time press Maliki to distance himself from Sadr and his Mahdi army.

The release of the execution video seems designed to stick it to the Sunnis (or as Rozen described "get the Sunnis to recognize their reduced status in the new Iraq") and establish Shia supremacy, making the "fallback" option look all the more inevitable.

Anonymous American officials are distancing themselves from the handling and timing of the execution, but this is an Administration with internal factions.

Perhaps these chatty officials are those who aren't on board with Cheney's "Shiite Tilt" notions. (That might explain why these officials are staying anonymous.)

Perhaps other Americans signaled to Maliki that it was just fine to execute Saddam without worrying about further division.

Again, this is just speculation.

There's certainly not enough information to say definitively that the execution had tacit support by at least some in the Administration and is a beginning of a Tilt.

But it's worth thinking about, and keeping an eye out for other moves that indicate a quiet strategic shift towards a Tilt.

Because if we are effectively picking sides in a civil war, the public should know about it.