Friends in high places

Now that Iraq's government has appealed to Ahmadinejad to help with the insurgency and that they also appear to be quite chummy -- Maliki having received a "warm welcome" in Tehran -- does this mean that Bush and Cheney are going attack Iraq ... again? Because it sure looks like Iran, the biggest sponsor of terrorism in world as Cheney likes to claim, and Iraq are buddying up and that surely means that we must launch full scale aggression against Iran and Iraq.

In some respects, this is actually a sign of progress that we can credit the Bush administration for -- Donald Rumsfeld in particular. By their obdurate incompetence, the White House has managed to bring together two nations that have been mortal enemies for decades. Now they appear to be best of friendly friends. See, it's not all bad. Nice work Rummy!

I can't imagine that the Israelis are too thrilled to see what Bush's freeman moxy agenda has brought to their doorstep.

Actually, I don't necessarily subscribe to the notion that good diplomatic ties between Baghdad and Tehran is an obviously bad thing. It seems that Maliki could have a moderating influence on the more extremist nonsense coming out Tehran. That is, he might have a more moderating influence on Tehran if he didn't have to deal with a smoldering civil war in his own country, something he surely must attend more pressingly than trying to mitigate the actions and rhetoric of Ahmadinejad.