Remember the scene in Excalibur when Morgana's evil son Mordred tells King Arthur "let us embrace" before they die in each other's arms?
Love that movie.
With Iran wreaking clandestine spoiler havoc in Iraq - and in the Middle East in general for the past 25 years - one has to possibly conclude at some point that the United States and Iran are heading on a collision course. Dealing with Iran and Syria - the two biggest trouble makers in the region - properly years ago could have avoided all this.
Iran is Mordred. The United States is King Arthur. Hey, that's my perception and I'm sticking to it. The question is if they can avoid Arthur's fate. Can America really take on Iran while mired in Iraq and Afghanistan? If this was a conventional war the answer would almost surely be yes given their superiour military capabilities- air power in particular. Alas, there is nothing conventional about the tactics used in the Middle East anymore. While diplomacy is only effective with engaged rational players. There are too many spoilers - both rational and irrational - in the region now. Normalizing relations with Iran will take great skill and patience.
It's strange how the two main combatants - Iran and Iraq - in the 1980s ended up facing the United States.
These next few months will be challenging to say the least for the Bush administration.
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