Is Anyone Surprised

By this?

The news that the government we helped set up in Iraq is helping Iran (also known as "The Next Place Neocons Want To Bomb") evade international economic sanctions shouldn't be a great shock to anyone.

It really shouldn't be news.  The al-Maliki government is aligned a bit closely with Iran; the Islamic Republic acted as a safe haven for several members of the current regime in Baghdad when Saddam was running the show there.  While they are still amenable to persuasion on our part, some prominent members are profiting from the traffic in banking and oil revenues, and as we all know that money talks it's only a matter of time before Iranian money talk a bit louder than we do.

Again, no surprise.  Geopolitically speaking, when we destroyed the Saddam regime we erased the counterbalance we had against Iran.  Leaving Iran as the major power in the region will guarantee that the new Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad will gravitate toward Tehran as a friend.

Then as an ally.

Then as a client.

We only have ourselves to blame for this - well, the neo-conservatives who fraudulently got us into a war.

Is anyone surprised?