While Teapot Rove continues to boil, the world turns.
Casualties in Iraq continue to increase. Without a clear U.S. plan, the Iraqis seem to be turning to an old military foe, Iran, whose religious views are shared by the majority of Iraqis. The irony should not be lost on us.
In his State of the Union address for 2002, Bush declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be the Axis of Evil. Iraq would apparently no longer be on that list, having been conquered by the US. Presently, the US controls much of Iraq, though it has "turned over" sovereignty to Iraqis. Recently, the Iraqis turned to the Iranians for help training their military. Now it seems that the level of cooperation has reached the highest levels of government. Does this mean that the Iraqis have rejoined (and the US has joined) Bush's "axis of evil?"
From the BBC:
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari [who lived in exile in Iran] has begun the first top-level visit to Iran since the two neighbours waged an eight-year war in the 1980s.
MORE BELOW THE JUMP
More than 10 ministers are accompanying Mr Jaafari to open what Iranian media have called a new chapter in ties.
They are expected to discuss security and the control of their long border.
This more than just palsy-schmalzy and more than just training of troops....these guys are talking MONEY issues, sure to get the US' attention:
A new friendship is blossoming between Tehran and Baghdad to the consternation of the US, still bogged down in Iraq... the delegations are also likely to discuss economic issues such as electricity, energy and water.
Iran's transport minister has said he expects a number of agreements to be signed to link Iran's rail network to that of Iraq and Syria.
There are also plans to start Iranian flights to Baghdad and Najaf and an oil pipeline is in the offing to take crude from Basra to be refined inside Iran.
That's right, folks, OIL, the stuff that the US covets even more than "FREEDOM"....
Not surprisingly:
the Americans are uneasy.... They have warned Iran not to interfere in Iraq, saying Tehran should not try to dominate certain institutions or areas of the country.
Those concerns don't bother the Iraqis or the Iranians very much. On July 18, it was announced that three pipelines will be built, by Iran, and the deal will be 150,000 barrels of oil per day in exchange for gasoline, basically.
So the obvious question is, will an already nonplussed Preznint declare the US part of the axis of evil? Will we be subject to saberrattling, sanctions, and insults to our dear leader? will the CIA forge documents accusing us of trying to develop new weapons of mass destruction, such as the robust nuclear earth penetrator? Will Bush ask Mexico to cut off our supply of cheap labor? Will the Israelis try to bomb Los Alamos?
But seriously, this turn of events has been predicted by many experts, given the Shia majority in Iraq. The noted authority James W. Bill, professor at William and Mary and author of a recent book, suggested that Iran is the logical candidate to provide stability for the region. In a recent article, Bill suggests:
The solution to the Iraqi-Afghani morass is found in diplomacy involving Iran. In the Middle East, delicate social and political problems cannot be bombed or "missiled" out of existence. It is high time that these two old rivals begin to work together. Iran and the United States share many interests. Both nation-states seek to keep the price of oil at a consistent level. Both countries are committed to keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to tanker traffic. Both Iran and the United States do not want to see Iraq dismembered. Furthermore, the two countries are committed to the destruction of the drug traffic that flows through the region.
Bill is cognizant of Iran's "warts," but sees hopeful signs:
While Iran's human rights record is abysmal, it is seldom realized that the Islamic Republic has taken important strides in advancing the process of democratization. The June 24 elections reflected the wishes of the people and brought to the presidency a conservative technocrat named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In his surprise victory, the new president defeated old political insider Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Ahmadinejad focused his campaign upon the needs of the poor and the dispossessed. He argues that the revolution has lost its way and that it is mandatory to bring the lower classes back into the political equation.
Bill seems uncertain that the Bush administration is up to the challenge, but says sooner or later the US will have to face the reality:
Iran is the wild card in the Persian Gulf deck. Its population is twice the population of all the other gulf states put together. There will be no treaties signed, no deals cut, no solutions proposed without Iranian participation.
The US has
no realistic plan for stabilizing Iraq in the next ten years.
Coalition partners are pulling out. My feeling is, we need some "willing" neighbors who can stabilize the region. Others have called for Arab or Muslim neighbors to "step up to the plate." I think Bill (and the Iraqis) are making the case.