Empire: This Ain't It.

In a part of the world unaccustomed to Western-style democratic rule, we intervened to *ahem* liberate the people from a tyrant. Tyrant gone, we stuck around to smoosh a few thousand mujahideen. Then some elections were held. Go figure, it looks like the election results may not be what Washington, Jefferson, and Adams would have liked.

Then we left. Mostly. The people in Iraq understand force, and we removed our ability to project force. Iran, home to the short man who swings a big stick, is right next door, shares the religion of the majority of Iraqis, and has a government with which they are more comfortable.

So Iraq is starting to look more-snuggly with Iran than we would like. Michael Savage wrote four years ago that removing Hussein would lead to the possibility of a greater Persia (Iran + Iraq) united under a common religion. He advocated dividing the country into ethnic regions. This was at the same time the useful idiots in America were bellowing that the war was about President Bush's American Empire.

If it were about Empire, we would have set up a puppet government we liked and stories like this would never need to be written. Well, here comes the greater Persia. Who's for partitioning Iraq now? Show of hands? Anyone?