And Again, The Winner Is Iran

by tristero

Juan Cole analyzes the latest cease-fire in the multi-front Iraqi civil war:

The entire episode underlines how powerful Iran has become in Iraq. The Iranian government had called on Saturday for the fighting to stop. And by Sunday evening it had negotiated at least a similar call from Sadr (whether the fighting actually stops remains to be seen and depends on local commanders and on whether al-Maliki meets Sadr’s conditions).

Cole also notes in his headline that Bush has been reduced to sheer irrelevancy: al-Sadr and Iran clearly are in control of the situation.

Think about that. Four thousand plus American lives have been sacrificed, countless Iraqis have also died, at a financial cost in the multiple trillions and the upshot is not democracy but the spread of radical Shiite islamism. There aren’t words in the English language ominous enough to describe how profound a catastrophe this is.

Note to United States: Bush/Iraq is why you should never, ever, elect a president with a C+ average.

Note to United States II: Bush/Iraq is also why you should never, ever elect a president who has “senior moments” and scrambles the differences between Shiite and Sunni.