More Negotiating With Terrorist

It would appear that some measure of realism is sinking into the Bush administration. I don't know whether it's a head fake or not, but this announcement is sure interesting (via Juan Cole):

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (IPS) - In a new indication that the balance of power within the administration of President George W. Bush has tilted strongly in favour of the realists, Washington's influential ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has disclosed that Bush has authorised him to open direct talks with Iran about stabilising Iraq.

Juan Cole suggests that negotiations with Tehran are about stabilizing Iraq and avoiding a regional war. But put this tidbit together with the announcement last week of negotiations with Sunni insurgents (who are now called a "national liberation force" by the Arab league). What you get sure smells familiar. Sorta like agreeing to leave Vietnam with a fig leaf of a negotiated peace while,... wink wink..we know damned well the communists would take over as soon as we left.

But this is the real killer graf:

While Chalabi was received rapturously by hard-line neo-conservatives at the American Enterprise Institute, who did so much to champion his efforts to bring U.S. troops to Iraq, it now appears that his official reception here by senior administration officials, including Rice, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, and Vice President Dick Cheney, was linked to his perceived usefulness in extricating those troops from a political quagmire -- and, more specifically, gaining Tehran's cooperation in doing so.

What a swell guy that Chalabi is. Wonder how much his consulting fee will be this time? How good of him to help the U.S. out in negotiating with Shiite fundamentalists in Iran! Gotta also wonder what Iran wants in return for cooperating?

Juan Cole thinks these events lay the ground work for U.S. withdrawal and a "soft-landing" in Iraq. It sounds to me like choosing-up sides for a civil war.

Either way, you gotta wonder how Israel feels as the U.S. intervention in Iraq ultimately appears to have strengthened the Arabs and Islamic fundamentalist.