There's something happening here/And what it is ain't exactly clear

Condi-Condi is travelling around the Middle East organizing "moderate" states and groups against "extremists".

Say what? Aren't we supposed to be shooting, bombing and torturing the Middle East into having democracy?

Well, the Party line may have changed: "Strategic Consensus" Redux? by Jim Lobe Inter Press Service 10/04/06 ; Beware a new Bush doctrine by Seyom Brown Boston Globe 10/04/06.

Iran's nuclear talks with the EU, or rather talks about having talks, seem to be at an impasse.

Meanwhile, next door in Iraq, the second-most-influential Shi'a clerical figure is complaining mightily that the US is backing ... Sunni militias. You know, the "Baathist hardliners", deadenders, the evil bad guys we went in to overthrow? Juan Cole has the story in Najafi: Beware US-Baath Alliance Informed Comment blog 10/05/06:

Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi, a Pakistani whom many consider the number 2 Shiite clerical leader after Sistani, warned that "American favoritism with regard to the political balance in Iraq will lead to a sectarian, regional downward spiral." ...

He demanded that "decision-making and the administration of Iraq be free of any taint of foreign interference." He said that above all they should escape from advice given by the Occupation troops. He called on the Iraq government to stop the "Fascist Baath" and the "Occupation" form thwarting the will of the Iraqi people.

Cole observes drily, knowing that the policymakers in the Cheney-Bush administration are unlikely to listen to what actual experts say, "it is extremely worrying that the number 2 man in the Shiite clerical hierarchy now views the United States as an ally of a Baath resurgence!"

What, you say? Haven't we been backing the Shi'a against the Sunnis up until now? Well, yeah. But everything changes.

Bob Dreyfuss cites this article by Dahr Jamail, US Now Using Militias to Enforce Occupation Antiwar.com 10/04/06, about the US training and providing arms to Sunni militias. Dreyfuss writes, "If true, it's a stunning new error, compounding past ones (disbanding the army, banning the Baath, empowering the religious Shiites, etc.)".

An error, extremely worrying, yep. But tilting to the Baathists and other Sunni hardliners in Iraq does have some kind of logic - if you're getting ready to attack predominantly Shi'a Iran.

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