But it is also clear now that a major consequence of George W. Bush's disastrous foreign policy has been an emboldened Iran. The U.S. "has been Iran's very best friend," a diplomat from a predominantly Sunni nation told me recently. "You have eliminated its enemies, the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. You have even reduced yourselves as a threat to Iran because you have spent so much blood and treasure in Iraq."
First of all, our enemies simply do not look at our commitment of 129,000 troops in Iraq out of over 2 million total forces and conclude we are helpless. Before Iraq, our enemies saw our uncommitted power and thought little of attacking us since they assumed we didn't have the guts to fight them. Now, with less than ten percent of our forces, we have smashed the Taliban and Saddam's regime and have created hundreds of thousands of allied Iraqi and Afghan troops to help us fight the jihadis.
Does anybody doubt that our enemies fear us? Do they really see us as helpless because of Iraq? Come on! If China overran Mexico and Canada at the cost of 10,000 killed in action for the PLA after five years of fighting, would we seriously be gloating that we had the weakened China right where we wanted them?
Iran is seriously in a bad position with our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do not become confused on this as Klein is.
And after starting out with his assumption that our policy is making things worse, Klein sees confirmation in a Sunni diplomat's analysis? The Sunnis despise the Shias. The Shias are seen by Sunnis as heretics and lower class bumpkins who shouldn't be allowed to write with sharp objects let alone run their own countries. Of course the diplomat from a predominantly Sunni country is going to be upset we knocked down an uber-Sunni Taliban state and elevated the Shias over the Sunnis of Iraq. Bad precedents from a Sunni point of view, don't you know?
So don't take Sunni advice on the Shias as completely unbiased. I'd want to know who the Sunni diplomat is before I take his statement at face value as Klein did. But I'd expect Klein to take it at face value. It is too convenient for him not to believe it.
Amazing. Somehow we should still be in search of those elusive mullah moderates who will make a deal with us.
