Unfortunately, Iran only continues to prove itself to be the big winner of the failed U.S. policy efforts in Iraq. New meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have apparently cemented a firmer relationship that will likely ask for the withdraw of all U.S. forces soon and put Iran in the driver's seat of supplying a pipeline of arms to the Shiite dominated government and militia groups of Iraq, only fueling a more intense civil war with the Sunni population.

Under the guise of Iran seeking "better security" in Iraq, Iran will likely provide weapons to the Shiite factions that will likely far surpass the limited capability of the old style Soviet Union era AK-47s and other small arms that the U.S. has been providing to the Iraqi military. The U.S. has deliberately limited the effectiveness of the new Iraqi military to prevent them from having the best and latest of technology. But the lure of higher technology weapons to the Shiite forces to crush the Sunni community is too much of a lure for the Shiite sectarian combatants to refuse from Iran, bcause the centuries old sectarian hatred runs so deep.

Iran actually has several intentions in Iraq. The oil assets of Iran are dwindling very fast and gas is now being rationed, so Iran needs to gain some control over Iraqi oil assets, believed to be the largest in the world by international oil industry experts. Further, Iran wants to expand it's Shiite influence in the Mideast and create a near satellite state that reflects it's Shiite Islamic revolution in the area and proves itself to be a huge counter-power to Sunni Saudi Arabia for example.

Since Vietnam, the U.S. has proven itself to have a reverse "midas" touch with gaining a desired outcome in a region with foreign policy. U.S. intervention in the ongoing 1960's civil war in Vietnam did not prevent the "domino effect" fall to Communism in the region, but instead became a wider war in Indochina as President Nixon ordered military action against Communist bases in Laos and Cambodia, destabilizing those nations and giving the Communist Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge the opportunity to seize power in both states.

In the same way, the U.S. has helped Iran achieve the expansion of it's Shiite Islamic revolution into Iraq. Iran was unable to militarilly topple the Saddam Hussein regime during the long 1980's Iran-Iraq War, thanks to massive covert military aid from the Reagan Administration such as the abuse of billions of dollars of Agriculture Department CCC funds meant for international disaster relief which were funneled into the purchase of arms from Brazil and France by Saddam Hussein's military.

But with Saddam Hussein gone since the 2003 U.S. occupation, and a Shiite dominated government firmly in control in Iraq, thanks again to U.S. efforts, most of the heavy work has already been done for Iran to pick up the pieces in Iraq and prove itself to be a bigger regional power and threat to U.S. interests than ever. Under George Bush, the reverse "Midas touch" in U.S. foreign policy only has continued, and again with disasterous results.