Check out this piece by academic Michael Schwartz in Asia Times Online for a so-ironic-it-hurts analysis of the ways that America’s recent adventures in Iraq have benefited its old enemy, Iran. Schwartz gives us a succinct rundown of the various political factions in post-war Iraq and explains how many of the key players are fans of — or avidly working with — Tehran’s authoritarian government. (It’s a point that Middle East scholar Juan Cole has also made repeatedly: The real victor of the Iraq War? Iran.)

Back when the Bush administration was trying to sell its invasion of Iraq, the war cry among the more rabid hawks was “first Iraq, then Iran.” (As one administration official put it: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”) Then the insurgency rapidly sapped the strength of the military and the will of the public for more war. Things have gone swimmingly for Iran ever since, Schwartz says. Iranian-backed candidates have won office in the new republic, Iraqi businessmen have built up a bustling cross-border trade, and the grateful Iraqis have, in return, promised not to allow their country to be used as a staging ground for (U.S.) attacks on Iran.

Schwartz also sorts out some of the curious connections between Iraq, Iran, and — of all American bugbears — China. Ousting Saddam, he argues, inadvertently brought oil-hungry China (a former customer of Saddam’s) into the arms of the ayatollah. Since then, China has shown itself ready to block any American moves against Iran’s nuclear ambitions in the United Nations. It has also helped Iran establish ties with other countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — an alliance of central Asian nations, Russia among them, which have increasingly spoken out against U.S. military intervention in the Middle East (as seen most dramatically last month when one of those allies, Uzbekistan, gave the U.S. military six months to leave the Karshi-Khanabad air base, which has been used for staging operations in Afghanistan).

Now that Iran seems intent on building a nuclear power plant (and maybe a bomb or two), the hard-liners in power should thank the Bush administration for giving them all the political cover they could have asked for. With enemies like the United States, who needs friends?

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen