Go al-Qaida! On to Tehran

From observing the Middle East for some 40 years, I can say without equivocation that no one is better than the Arabs at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It happened in 1973 when nothing separated Syria's superior armor capability from the heart of Israel but one Israeli tank. The Syrians halted their armored charge into the Jewish state because commanders believed it must be a trap. It was simply too good to be true. That heroic Israel tank commander bought enough time for air and tank reinforcements, and Israel was able to repel the Syrian invasion.

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It happened again in 2000 when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat 92 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a Palestinian homeland. For whatever reason, Arafat turned it down and declared war – an "intifada" that rages on today, years after his death, proving, once again, the old adage that no good turn should go unpunished.

If reports from Iraq are accurate, it's about to happen again – and, boy, is it just in time.

A leader in al-Qaida released an audiotape threatening war on Iran within two months if the Shiite nation does not end all support for the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq.

Praise be to Allah!

Just as America is about to throw in the towel in Iraq because of fighting on two fronts – one with Sunni al-Qaida and the other with Shiite militias – the two could turn on each other.

The timing is fortuitous to say the least.

It is about the only thing that could save face for the U.S., which, because of political opposition at home, insists on fighting both enemies with one hand tied behind its back.

• No coercive interrogations of prisoners;

• Arrests and trials of soldiers who do their jobs too well;

• Limitations on the kind of weaponry employed;

• Failure to eradicate enemy positions because they hide within civilian population centers.

Because George Bush is fighting Iraq like Lyndon Johnson fought Vietnam, there is almost no way the U.S. can hope to achieve real victory. But just when things are as bleak as you can imagine, the Arabs may again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

"We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention … otherwise a severe war is waiting for you," said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who heads the Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida umbrella group.

This is almost too good to be true.

My only fear is that it is some kind of disinformation plot by Osama bin Laden.

While many opponents of the Iraq war in the U.S. have characterized the conflict as a "civil war," it is actually, more accurately, a war between the U.S. coalition forces and al-Qaida and Hezbollah on two separate fronts.

While al-Qaida and Hezbollah have, in the past, worked out strategic alliances when they have a common enemy like the U.S., nothing could serve Western interests more than an all-out war between Iran and al-Qaida.

All we need to do is step aside and let them kill each other.

What could be easier?

Of course, as soon as I say that, I begin thinking of ways the Bush administration might mess up such a fortuitous development. I start thinking of all the possibilities.

I guess it's too early to start counting our chickens.

But I'm excited. I can't wait to see the mad mullahs of Iran under siege from the equally mad bombers of al-Qaida.

Whoever it was who said the enemy of my enemy is my friend may have been on to something after all.

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