And So Why Is Iran Our Enemy Again?

Our "enemy" Iran has been helping out with cross-border arms flows, helping make the "surge" a relative success:

Iran appears to be honoring an informal pledge to halt the smuggling of bombs into Iraq, contributing to a drop of such attacks by nearly half since March, a senior U.S. general told reporters today.

"We have not seen any recent evidence that weapons continue to come across the border into Iraq. We believe that the initiatives and the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up," Army Gen. James Simmons said.

Bomb attacks have dropped from 3,239 in March to 1,560 last month, the lowest level since September 2005, he said. Most of the attacks are taking place north of Baghdad, from the town of Taji just outside the capital to the provinces of Nineveh and Tamim, he said.

...The reduction coincides with the overall decrease in violence since the start of the Baghdad security plan, which saw an additional 28,500 Americans troops arrive in Iraq from February to June.

But the Iranians are just helping out their Shiite bretheren in the al-Maliki government - there's no love for the U.S. here.

The "surge" may end up some sort of failure, however, because its original purpose was to create sufficient security to permit the Sunnis and the Shiites to negotiate and come to political compromises on the sharing of power. The al-Maliki government has said quite bluntly that they are sharing just as much power as they please, thank you. So, the surge's actual purpose may instead be to allow the Shiites to take the initiative in the Iraqi civil war. All done on the American taxpayer's dime, of course, and with their blood, too.

If so, then why not formally ally with Iran, and with the al-Maliki government? Right now we are arming both sides, Shiite and Sunni alike, in the next phase of the civil war. That's one way to lose influence with both sides. The logic of the American invasion was to disposess the minority Sunnis from political power in Iraq. Then complete the logic.

As regards Iranian hostility towards Israel, we should remember that Israel's interests are not precisely the same as ours. We need not be hostile to Iran on all matters, even if Israel must be.