Maliki and Ahmadinejad make nice

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran today and repotedly asked Iran to prevent al Qaeda from slipping across the border to carry out attacks. Iran's president in turn promised to help Iraq `establish security', whatever that meant.


Haidar al-Obadi, a parliament member from al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said "there are al Qaeda members and al Qaeda strongholds in Iran."

The visit by al-Maliki underlines the relationship between Shiite Iran and Iraq's government, dominated by Shiite allies of Iran.

Of course, neither discussed the real problem in Iraq...the Shiite militias armed and backed by Iran like Moqatar al Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Badr force. They didn't talk about it for the very reason that these militias are the muscle behind the ruling Shiite parties...like Maliki's Dawa party.

Take a second to digest that...the armed forces used by the parties controlling the Iraqi government we are supporting and finacing are proxies of our enemy Iran!

Al-Maliki, who like his predecessor Jafaari spent the Saddam years cuddled up with the Mullahs in Iran received the red-carpet treatment at the presidential palace before the sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Asked at a joint press conference following their talks about allegations that Iran was interfering in Iraq, al-Maliki said, "There is no obstacle in the way of implementing agreements between Iran and Iraq."

"All our assistance to the Iraqi people will be to establish complete security in this country," Ahmadinejad said, according to a state-run news agency report of the press conference. "Iran and Iraq enjoy historical relations. These relations go beyond from neighborly ties. Our relations will remain excellent.

"We consider Iraq's progress, independence and territorial integrity as our own," Ahmadinejad said.

"This trip will strengthen bilateral relations. Iran and Iraq, as two brotherly neighbors, will stand by each other and unwanted guests (U.S.-led coalition forces) will leave the region," he added.

Notice th ebit about the `unwanted guests'...something al-Maliki didn't contradict in the least.

Instead, Al-Maliki described the talks as "very constructive" and called Iran "a very important country, a good friend and brother."

Al-Maliki's Shiite-led government that we support and keep in power has strong ties with the mullahs in Iran, and they are growing even closer.

AT some point very soon, the Iraqis are going to say something along the line of `thank you very much for your time and money, infidels..now leave, so we can bond with our Shiite jihadi brothers in Iran.'

So much for staying the course, Mr. President. I will never cease to wonder at how the Bush Administration took a brilliant military victory and allowed it to be squandered so easily.