They just don't get it

Howard Dean says "the Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite. We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe Israel doesn't have the right to defend itself and to refuse to condemn Hezbollah." Sen Dick Durbin also criticized the prime minister for not renouncing Hezbollah.

Gentlemen, you just don't get it.

Dean was in Palm Beach gladhanding in a critical state, trying to rally the base, but he, along with Durbin, made a huge miscalculation. First of all, the prime minister's government cannot even control the Iraqi capital. He is a Shi'a Muslim in a country dominated by Shi'a Muslims, and Hezbollah is a Shi'a movement. It would be political, and perhaps actual suicide for Maliki to have dramatically denounced the group. That is even more true if it appeared he was caving in to U.S. pressure, where he would return to find himself as either the puppet

or the harem eunuch

--take your pick.

We also have to remember that Hezbollah is not just a group of "terrorists." The group combines elements of a Shi'a religious party, a local political structure and a Lebanese national movement. We do a real disservice to reasoned discourse by blindly lumping them in simply as "terrorists." They have the support of hundreds of thousands of people and are a force to be reckoned with. Once again we see U.S. policymakers stumbling around in a situation they just don't understand.