ninme

First, my excuses: During the weekend we: went to Ikea, finished hanging all the doors in the kitchen (except for the uber-expensive glass doors, $67 each!), finally bought a load of shelving for the balcony to reclaim the floor, stained it twice, tried to start putting it together but apparently we need a metric hex bit, we went out for a breakfast, we saw a movie, we finally bought a zipper for my dress, we watched 2 Thin Man movies, baked coconut cupcakes, went for a few walks, took a few pictures and generally potted about.

But all that’s over and now we’re back to, ooh look, Iranian perfidy:

The Times - Forked Tongues
America talks to an Iran that is still bent on its humiliation in Iraq

America’s narrow goal was to exact an official Iranian statement of support for the Iraqi Government and a formal pledge to cooperate in stabilising the country – commitments that, Baghdad and Washington hope, would then put Iran on the spot when confronted by the constantly accumulating evidence that it is actively training, arming and funding the enemies of stability, al-Qaeda cells as well as Shia extremists. Mr Crocker got the statements of intentions he sought, but these were predictably accompanied by assertions that Iraq’s troubles stem from the presence in Iraq of US forces, and a flat denial that Iran is arming the insurgency. Cunningly, Iran’s Ambassador then proposed a “trilateral security mechanism” for Iraq: a poisoned chalice, since the creation of any such body would compound Sunni suspicions that Iran’s strategy is to turn Iraq into a puppet state. Mr Crocker observed drily that since there was agreement on policy, no mechanism was needed for Iran to put its principles into practice.

And speaking of perfidy:

The gathering congressional mutiny against a long-term American military commitment has convinced Iran’s hardliners that their strategic goal – a US humiliation in Iraq that would render it impotent throughout the Middle East – is in reach. Iranian intelligence and elements of its Revolutionary Guard, both directly controlled by the supreme leadership, have stepped up arms shipments, particularly of the armour-piercing roadside bombs that have been responsible for the majority of American and British deaths. To send the message to Americans that the “surge” is failing to improve security, Iran’s agents have orchestrated high-profile attacks on the green zone in Baghdad. They are arming and financing not only militias and death squads formed by Shia co-religionists in southern Iraq, but also Syrian-backed Sunni jihadists and al-Qaeda networks farther north, groups with which Iran has nothing in common but hatred of the US.

Ah, real life. How lovely.