Iran: The living fossils' vengeance by Spengler

Ahmadinejad's victory leaves American policy in an untenable position. To the extent that the United States enhances the military prowess of Iraq's Shi'ites to the level required to suppress Sunni insurgents, Iran may harvest the political benefits. Iraq is now led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Da'wa party, which operated in exile out of Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War. At a Baghdad news conference with Iran's foreign minister on May 18, al-Jafaari said in English, referring to the 138,000 American troops in Iraq, "Let me add that the party that will leave Iraq is the United States, because it will eventually withdraw. But the party that will live with the Iraqis is Iran, because it is a neighbor to Iraq."