Iraq

While I was busy writing about silly Liberals, Iraq took a major step for the worse. The country's foremost cleric, Al-Sistani, has basically washed his hands of the country's politics.

Sistani has, with decreasing success, been playing the role of the bouncers on the Jerry Springer show - not powerful enough to keep the chairs from flying, but trying hard to keep order nonetheless.

It should be said - and by no means do I mean to say this decision by Sistani is all America's fault, but here I go - that the US did a lot to undercut Sistani during the first two years of the occupation. Specifically, Sistani was one of the earliest and most constant voices calling for early and direct elections, something the US quite clearly and publicly decided wasn't going to happen until Sistani put a few hundred thousand activists in the streets.

The problem for Sistani is that the Iraq Shia are increasingly caught between obeying the dictates of Washington and the contest between Washington and Tehran. For a moderate nationalists like Sistani, there's not really a lot of leverage.