"THE STUPID PLAN has collapsed, as anyone could have foreseen"

[kpete]

Juan Cole:
Veteran journalist Jim Lobe has put it all together in a tight analysis I haven't seen elsewhere.

POLITICS-US:
Realists Tighten Grip as Talks Open with Iran
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (IPS) - In a new indication that the balance of power within the administration of President George W. Bush has tilted strongly in favour of the realists, Washington's influential ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has disclosed that Bush has authorised him to open direct talks with Iran about stabilising Iraq.

The Neocons began by wanting to destroy the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and their Baath Party, and then going to to overthrow the ayatollahs in Iran. They inducted Bush and Cheney into this over-ambitious and self-contradictory plan, which depended on putting the Shiite Iraqis in power in Baghdad. But wouldn't the Sunni Arabs violently object? Wouldn't the Iraqi Shiites establish warm relations with Tehran.

And now the stupid plan has collapsed, as anyone could have foreseen (I did, in 2002). And Realism is reasserting itself.

The two beneficiaries of the 180 degree turn by Bush's ship of state toward the fabled shores of Reality? The Neo-Baath of Sunni Iraq and the ayatollahs in Tehran.

But who cares? If the US dealing with them can get our troops home and prevent a regional war that screws up the whole world, it will be well worth it.
http://www.juancole.com/
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31217

[xchrom]

1. gasp -- with a member of the axis of EVIL!

:rofl:

[Lowell]

2. Do you think this has anything to do with

Iran's planned pipeline to Iraq? Iran is all set up to begin refining and distributing Iraq's oil. This is way ahead of the United States plans. Perhaps the administration wants to deal rather than loose everything to an oil grab by Iran. It's all about the oil.

[kenny blankenship]

3. This was the Mother of All Stupid Plans

"And now the stupid plan has collapsed, as anyone could have foreseen "

Next to this idea (the stupid plan of empowering the Shi'ites of Iraq while somehow dethroning the Shi'ite theocrats of Iran at the same time), the blunders and miscalculations made at the outset of the Vietnam war shine out like diamonds of genius.