Missed opportunities.

I took the whole post from Eric at Wampum:

Return of the ... One True King (part 8)

David Ignatus writes in today's WaPo Lost Chances in Iran a piece that discloses yet another amazing NeoCon adventure in the making, this time in Iran.

Post invasion, the US and its partners in crime had bagged about 4,000 members of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, which I last mentioned with something less than admiration in part 4, which contains a link to an OpEd piece in the the NY TImes by Ali Safavi, who cheerfully mentions Maryam Rajavi (Mujahedin-e Khalq) as a bell weather for the popularity of Western-initiated regime change in Tehran. Interested readers should read this. Negociations, described in Ignatus' piece, resulted in a pledge by Tehran to

grant amnesty to most of the 4,000 Mujaheddin-e Khalq captives, to forgo the death penalty for about 65 leaders who would be tried in Iranian courts and to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to supervise the transfer.

So far, so good, unless one has drunk the Mullahs-always-lie koolaide served at a surprisingly large number of wholesale and retail political koolaide outlets in the United States, one of the glow-in-the-dark subtexts of the waiting-like-coyote US-Iran War.

What would the US get in return for this largess to a civilized Iran?

Over 500 al Qaeda cadres, bagged by Iran in the Winter of 2001-2002, and another group of senior al Qaeda cadres, up to the General Staff equivalents in that organization, who were bagged by Iran in the Spring of 2002. Not thousands of indiscriminately arrested Iraqis, including children, but a significant fraction of the al Qaeda general combatant, field command, and head-quarters staff officer populations.

So why did our Idiot King prefer to keep 4,000 Mujahedin-e Khalq cadres in some jug or another in Iraq, rather than trade up for better quality cadres who actually want to blow up Washington, rather than Tehran? Because Cheney's gang of idiots think they're going to overthrow the Mullahs and the Majlis with the Mujahedin-e Khalq.

For those that don't follow Iranian politics, it is difficult to characterize just how unlikely it is that the

Mujahedin-e Khalq can affect "regime change" in Tehran. For those that do follow American politics, giving blanket amnesty to al Qaeda cadres who choose to be disarmed and taken into custody in Iran, and not invoking what amounts to an extradition agreement to interrogate senior members of the al Qaeda movement, should contribute to "regime change" in Washington.

More missed opportunities. Read The Fixer's take on the Sudan and you'll find another.


I'm off for the weekend. I'm going home, New Jersey, to visit my parents and give them my good news. If my sister lets me use her computer I'll try to post over the weekend. If it gets ugly, I'll have to see you on Monday. If I get something important, I'll post using my phone. Have a good weekend.