Iran has been involved militarily in the region, and is now turning up the political heat to influence future events.  The U.S. State Department is woefully inept to counter Iranian influence.

I have been watching Iran for some time now.  Even with the most clinical of assessments, one can only conclude that the hard line extremists in Iran are pathological liars.  Iran denied that they had supplied Hezbollah with equipment, while almost simultaneously Iranian-made equipment was captured in Lebanon by the IDF.  While denying that they were in any way assisting Hezbollah, Iranian soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.  Contrary to repeated denials of Iranian involvement in Iraq, the more complicated IED technology has an unmistakable Iranian signature.  While denying that Iran has meddled in the affairs of Iraq, even prior to the war, huge sums of money and Iranian intelligence assets poured across the border in an attempt to effect a post-war outcome favorable to Iran.  Again while denying that Iranians have done any harm to people or infrastructure in Iraq, Iranians involved in sabotage of oil pipelines have been arrested by Iraqi security forces.  U.S. border forts have not been able to supress the Iranian influence in Iraq or close the porous border.

In stepped up political maneuvering (by Iran), Iraqi Prime Minister Malaki visited Iran yesterday, attempting to tell him that the Iranian meddling must stop.  First, it is troublesome that he would visit Iran, since Iraq should see Iran as its most entrenched enemy — the one who would work towards a one-world Caliphate that would mean the diminution of trivial things like Iraq-Iran borders and state sovereignty.  But it is more troublesome that Iran seems to be playing the political game with Iraq.  The Ayatollah Khamenei weighs in on his position regarding the U.S. presence in Iraq:

Khamenei told al-Maliki that Iran “considers it an obligation to support the Iraqi government in practical ways,� Iran’s state news agency said.

But Khamenei — who holds the final word in all political matters in Iran — made clear Iran wants to see the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which he blamed in part for the turmoil plaguing Iraq.

“Part of (Iraq’s) sufferings have been due to the actions of the former regime and part is due to the presence of occupiers in Iraq,� Khamenei told al-Maliki, according to the Iranian state news agency and state television.

We also find out that there is future cooperation planned between Iraq and Iran:

In the latest sign of increasing cooperation, the two countries reached a deal for jointly developing oil fields straddling their border, and eventually Iraq will send crude oil to refineries in Iran for processing, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said Wednesday.

Iran is also helping Iraq in its chronic shortages of petroleum products. Under a deal reached last month, Iraq will sell crude oil to its neighbor, which will sell back kerosene, and an Iranian-Turkish company will deliver gasoline, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AP. 

With close enough cooperation, enough largesse spread around by Iran, and enough meddling in the affairs of Iraq, the hope apparently is that Iraq would become more like Iran, a place hostile to Western influences and militant against Western values.

Iran is not for a single second interested in stability in Iraq.  Iran is interested in a world Caliphate, and Iraq is less seen as a stumbling block to that end and more and more seen as another pawn to use to that end.

Condi and the Department of State are not prepared to engage in a diplomatic battle with Iran.  Condi went the Department of State to recalibrate them, and she has apparently been recalibrated.  Unless and until the DOS is on board with the administration’s policies concerning the GWOT, they will be not be simply irrlevant, but rather, a nuisance and hindrance.

The absence of the U.S. would have catastrophic results for Iraq.  This is true not only in the present, but to some extent in the future.  Iran has to be in our sights.  Until they are dealt with, the GWOT will not be won.