It is all too depressing. While the US dithers, Iran and Al Qaeda continue to activate more and more fronts. Their success in fomenting a civil war in Iraq led them to try to replicate their success in Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Pakistan, India and Thailand and the Phillipines. Israel is not going to be the only neighbor to suffer.

The Baker/Hamilton recommendations to engage the Iranian/Syrian arsonists in negotiations are absurd and so are Tom Friedman’s call to Play the hand we dealt by engaging with Hamas are boomeranging big time.

Noting that Iran not only dissed Condi Rice in Egypt but also Lee Hamilton by arresting his former aid, Haleh Esfandiari, Barry Rubin, the author of The Truth About Syria, concludes:

 

The lessons about these regimes’ extremist behavior should be clear by now. When someone extends its hand in offered friendship, they interpret this as hands raised in surrender.

At this moment, Iranian diplomats are running around the Middle East telling their governments and business elites that America is bugging out and they better cut a Vichytype deal with the new regional superpower, Iran. Not only has the coalition post-Iraq invasion defensive posture cost thousands of lives but it is about to cost even more. An emboldened Iran wants to repeat the North Vietnamese performance. Iran has a secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq. After all, the Iranian revolution (along with Cambodia, Angola, Mozambique and Afghanistan) was part of the post Vietnam fallout.

Will they follow us home? They are already here, in New Jersey and Texas.

So, Fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be a bumpy summer. The only question is: Are we going to be on the offense or defense? Will W. play or punt?