Peace In Our Time

So I read that peace has broken out in Iraq. Colin Powell, of course, is claiming that the tactically-effective-yet-politically-counter-productive warfare seige by US troops was the clincher. This is far from a victory, however, with the militias being allowed to melt away with weapons and pride intact, and now veterans of several failed US seiges. Most of the people in the know seem to be saying that the peace was brokered by the returning Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who now seems happy to accommodate the stubborn Muqtada al-Sadr within an emerging Shia power structure with sway over large regions of southern Iraq.

This reminds me of the leadup to the 1979 Iranian Revolution. There, despite the best, bloodiest efforts by the pro-Western, moderately deranged Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, it was only the Lenin-like return and intercession of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that brought totalitarian peace to an Iran spinning increasingly out of control, with dozens of different factions and private militias fighting for control.