US "Not Winning" ~ All Seem Pleased

Washington Post: Senate Panel Approves Gates
Defense Pick Says U.S. Is Not Winning in Iraq

Robert M. Gates was unanimously approved by a Senate committee yesterday to become President Bush's new defense secretary, after a day-long confirmation hearing in which he bluntly stated that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq.

Senators So Very, Very Not Contrary Toward Gates

And so it came to pass, in the 12th month of the sixth year of the reign of Bush, that a prophet came forth to deliver us from the war in Babylon....

"We're very pleased," Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) said twice.

"Very, very pleased," added soon-to-be-chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

"We're very grateful," proffered John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"We're all very impressed," Warner continued.

"Very proud," contributed Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). "Very enthusiastic . . . and very happy."

In other news, Iran asks Arabs to join anti-US military alliance

(Caution: Associated Press)

Iran's top national security official urged Arabs on Tuesday to eject the U.S. military from bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance.

The audacious offer was the strongest sign yet of Iran's rising assertiveness in its contest with the United States for influence in the region.

Gulf countries, suspicious of Iran's intentions, are unlikely to respond to the call and push out the American military or end U.S. security deals that they view as offering them an umbrella of protection, many here said.

But smaller countries like Kuwait do now have to tread a fine line between not antagonizing either Washington or Tehran. Some Gulf countries refused to participate in recent U.S. Navy maneuvers in the Gulf so as not to offend Iran.

Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, apparently aimed to allay Arab concerns about his nation and raise suspicion about U.S. intentions in his speech Tuesday to a business and political conference here.

He told Arab business leaders and political analysts that Washington is indifferent to their interests and will cast them aside when they are no longer useful.

"The security and stability of the region needs to be attained and we should do it inside the region, not through bringing in foreign forces," Larijani said. "We should stand on our own feet."

Such words are a direct rejection by Iran of the "notion that it can be contained," Vali Nasr, an Iran expert with the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, attending the conference, said in an interview here.

"They're saying it's in our common interest that the U.S. leaves. But their larger message is that 'We don't want to take over the region,"' Nasr said.

Speakers at the Arab Strategy Forum said they believed Iran's rising clout came as a direct result of a faltering U.S. project in Iraq that has put Iran's Shiite allies in control of the government in Baghdad.

Larijani's proposal outlines what analysts here describe as an attempt to split the Arab world into two camps: a U.S.-Israeli-Arab coalition that seeks to contain Iran; and an anti-American, anti-Israeli alliance led by Iran.

Most Arab governments remain firm U.S. allies, but Iran's tough stance against Israel and the West has broad grassroots appeal.

Wikipedia: The Arab World. Map of Arab League states in dark green with non-Arab areas in light green and Somalia and Djibouti in striped green due to their Arab League membership but non-Arab population.

Wikipedia: The Muslim World. Nations with a Muslim majority appear in green, while nations that are at least 50% Muslim appear yellow.

Comments

[Joanne]

"Nations with a Muslim majority appear in green, while nations that are at least 50% Muslim appear yellow" Excuse me, but isn't a majority by definition a proportion that's over 50%? So what is the difference between the green and yellow areas?

[zed]

I know it is only Wikipedia, but... (Ah, Joanne beat me to my comment!)

[mazeartist]

The map fails to note that within morocco, therei s a sizable native Berber community. The native Coptic and Assyrian minorities also fials to appear on the map, swallowed by the Arab majority.