Anti-Missile Shield

Via Instapundit, Chester writes that a treaty with Iraq in 2007 may set for a decade our commitment to Iraq and the region to make sure the next president carries out the broad outlines of President Bush's strategy to strangle jihadi support in the Moslem world.

I think Chester is right about this being a way to make sure we fight the Long War longer than seven years ending in January 2009.

But this could also help with Iran in the short run if we really have a year or two to deal with the mullahs. If we minimize the use of Iraqi bases when we strike Iran, we could eliminate Iraq as Iran's main target for retaliation. We would undermine the mullahs' methods of responding to our attacks by essentially keeping Iraq neutral but tied to us in a defensive treaty.

If Iran does not self-destructively close Hormuz, striking Iraq would be the only real method available to Iran of striking back; and doing that would only allow Iraq to activate the treaty's defensive provisions and allow Iraq to participate fully in the campaign as a matter of self defense while muddying the waters in the UN about who is doing what to whom.

A US-Iraq Mutual Defense Treaty would do a lot of good in both the short term and long run.