Lifeline? Or Anvil?

Life is already stinky as a run-over skunk for George W Bush. First, his popularity figures are in the toilet, then he loses control over the Congress, and then he's forced to face the fact that we're losing in Iraq (and possibly Afghanistan as well). To put the sour cherry atop the teetering pile of rancid whipped cream for this shit sundae, he has to sit still and listen to the recommendations of his family consigliere, James Baker, and the rest of the Iraq Study Group.

Now comes the interesting bit.

Syria and Iranian spokesmen have weighed in, saying that a regional security conference (in which the United States would actually have to be in the same room with what Bush calls "the Axis of Evil") could solve the trouble currently afflicting Iraq. Admittedly, the spokesmen didn't say that they wanted all the regional players to sit down - just them, the US and the al-Maliki government in Baghdad.

One can almost hear the heads exploding on the Right if this scheme is agreed to by the US government.

But we've sat down with our avowed enemies before, even though it may irritate us to do so; so what's the fucking difference? Sure, Syria and Iran both back Hezbollah in Lebanon, but have we forgotten US backing of the contras in Nicaragua, the death squads in El Salvador, and Jonas Savimbi in Angola?

Oh, and let's not forget the mujahedin in Afghanistan.

We'll train, bankroll and back our own terrorists if it suits us; we're no different from any other nation in that regard. And a conference on Iraq might just enable us to extricate ourselves with some semblance of honor.