Iran thrives on the neo-con dream

[lovuian]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH27Ak01.html

Iran thrives on the neo-con dream
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Anyone who still believes that the US neo-conservatives who led the drive to war in Iraq are diabolically clever, geostrategic masterminds should now consider Iran's vastly improved position vis-a-vis its US-occupied neighbor.

Not only did Washington knock off Tehran's arch-foe, Saddam Hussein, as well as the anti-Iranian Taliban in Afghanistan, but, with the near completion of a new constitution that is likely to guarantee a weak central government and substantial autonomy to much of the Shi'ite south, it also appears that Iran's influence in Iraq - already on the rise after last spring's inauguration of a pro-Iranian interim government - is set to grow further.

"The new constitution will strengthen the hand of the provincial forces in the south, which are pro-Iranian," according to University of Michigan Iraq expert Juan Cole, who notes that the state structure authorized by the draft charter would amount more to a

confederation than a federal system.

Moreover, Cole told Inter Press Service, the constitutional ban on any law that contravenes Islamic law will likely give Shi'ite clerics significant power over the state, moving Iraq much closer to the Iranian model.

"While there's no clerical dictator at the head of government as in Iran, if you had five ayatollahs on the Supreme Court who were striking down laws because they contravened Islam, that's pretty close to the Iranian system," he said.
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Bush has only weakened our Army and strengthen Iran!!!
:nuke: