Obama Transition, Most Disapproved President, Obama in Pictures, Oval Office, Quiz, 50,000 words, SF

[larryhodges]

Want to keep track of the latest news, events and announcements in the setting up of the Obama Administration? They've set up a web page so you can do that.

It's official: Bush is the most unpopular president since disapproval ratings were first sought more than six decades ago. His disapproval rating in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation

Comments

[araken]

I don't think it's inevitable that Iraq and Iran will ally against us just because they're both majority-Shia. True, neither one likes us very much, but they also hate each other. Just about everyone in Iraq has a relative who died in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, including the Iraqi Shia, whom Saddam Hussein used as cannon fodder. Iraqi Shia are also a different ethnicity than Iranian Shia (Arab vs Persian), and that has its own cultural baggage.

In the same way, for many centuries England, France, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain were all the same religion, but they were still at war with each other constantly. There were times they briefly united (such as the first few Crusades), but even those were short-lived and involved lots of backstabbing.

Not saying that it can't happen, but it's certainly not automatic. Personally I'm more worried about the Iraqi army fighting in a future war against Israel than anything directly against us.

[larryhodges]

With a common "enemy" to blame for all that's wrong - the U.S., not to mention Israel - and considering that Iranian anger was mostly toward Saddam (a Sunni), I think it's pretty close to inevitable. The two have been cozying up to each other (http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/21/iran/) - and note this article came out AFTER my note about this last night. (But there are plenty of others like this.) Iran and Iraq were friends back in the 1950s until the British got in the way.

[stephan_laurent]

I would tend to agree with araken that the apparent coziness between Iraqi and Iranian Shia could be temporary, and calculated to put pressure on the Bush administration to finally get us out of there. While indeed the Iranian wrath was mostly at Saddam and his Sunni clique, there is not really that much love between the descendants of Babylon and those of Persia. Moreover, the anti-American sentiment is not uniform in Iraq; but they do want their country returned to them soon, and I am confident President Obama will follow through on his word.
This said, I agree with you that this is certainly a situation to be watched closely. It all may hinge on whether the Gordian Knot of Israel and Palestine can be cut (the breakup between Hamas and Fatah, and the political instability within Israel have complicated matters quite a bit). But a solution there has to be found before the Middle East can cease to be the boiling quagmire it is, and has been for far too long.

[larryhodges]

We'll find out someday. When the combined Iraqi/Iranian army marches through Washington D.C., I'll be blogging "*I told you so!" :)
*In either Arabic or Farsi