What are we to think of this?
The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (gad, I wish these guys had shorter names!), went to Baghdad to visit where he was warmly received by the Iraqi politicos.
Isn't Iran an "axis of evil" that is sending all kinds of weaponry into Iraq to help the insurgents kill American soldiers? On the other hand, isn't Iraq our ally? Didn't Iraq and Iran fight a terrible, nasty, bloody war, just a few years ago?
Doesn't this indicate that the leadership of the United States doesn't have a frigging clue how to deal with the Middle East?
Iran consists of mostly Shia muslims. The Iraqi government consists of mostly Shia muslims. Religion, in this case, trumps all.
And Mahmoud's visit went well ... "the visit opened a 'new page' in Iran-Iraq relations. ... We have the same understanding of things and the two parties are determined to strengthen their political, economic and cultural cooperation," said Mahmoud at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart.
Sheesh!
Nouri Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister claimed that his talks with Mr. Ahmadinejad were "friendly, positive and full of trust."
Trust?
Isn't Iran the country we're planning to blow to smithereens because we can't trust them when they say they are not building nuclear weapons?
The U.S. can't win this game. Just before he went back to Iran, Mahmoud laughed at American accusations that Iran is supporting Shia militants in Iraq. "Is it not funny," he asked, that those with 160,000 forces in Iraq accuse us of interference?"
Things are getting more confused and more complicated and it's becoming more difficult to tell the good guys from the bad guys, if we ever could. A commentator from BBC News, Hugh Sykes, thinks that Iran may potentially become an ally of the U.S. against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Sykes believes that the Shias in Iran have little in common "with the fundamentalist Wahhabists of the Taleban and al-Qaeda."
Does anyone know what the hell is going on?
1 comment:
Iraq is the country that expelled its jews in 1950 after centuries of living there. It never signed the a cease fire with Israel and the new government has stated it will not recognize Israel or its right to exist. It is not our friend and certainly not a friend of the only other democratic state in the Middle East. We are bogged down trying to solve their problems plus the ones we helped create. Are they better off without Saddam? Are we in America better off without Saddam? I am not convinced we are. He was not the worst or only dictator in the world. There are still plenty of terrible dictators and some are friends of the US. We have to look at Iraq as a problem to be resolved in the best interest of the US. I think they will eventually split into three entitles in some manner or go back to a dictatorial system, no matter how long we stay. Whatever will happen will happen whenever we leave, be it now or 100 years.
Bob Poris
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