Whether You Like It Or Not

They've given up on the US. Gee. Wonder why. "'We are committed to a good relationship with our neighbors,' [Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim] al-Jaafari said." Knight-Ridder (07.21.05):

"Gunmen seized two senior Algerian diplomats and their driver Thursday in a brazen daylight abduction that further threatened Iraq's relations with Arab countries, as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced a $1 billion aid package from neighboring Iran." Algerian diplomats in Iraq kidnapped; Iran pledges $1 billion in aid

Mr. al-Jaafari "said in his first public remarks since he returned from a state visit to Iran that the neighboring Islamic Republic had pledged about $1 billion for rebuilding projects to include schools, hospitals and libraries. "Iran also will supply much-needed electricity." The article notes that the US efforts to fix Iraq's power grid "have yielded little difference in the lives of Iraqis, who are enduring their third sweltering summer with sporadic electricity since the war began." They also "negotiated plans to boost religious tourism in the southern Shiite holy cities of Iraq and to improve security along their shared border." Here's the kicker: "Al-Jaafari and many other senior [Iraqi] officials spent years of exile in Iran during former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's reign and they maintain close ties to the clerical regime, whose relations with the Bush administration have been hostile." The Iranians will be successful. Bet the farm on it.