My friend, the old Middle East hand, sharpens the points he raised yesterday:

Satuday’s Washington Post carried an interesting report: “Iraqi Official Warns Against Coup Attempt.” According to the story, Hadi al-Amiri, a member of Iraq’s most powerful political party, SCIRI (Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq), cited rumors of an impending military coup. “We will not allow it,” he said.

This raises some intriguing questions:

If the U.S. and Iran came to blows as a result of Hezbollah’s war, where would the sympathies of the Iraqi people lie? The Iraqi government? The Iraqi army? Is it possible that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army would turn its guns against us, or against a “collaborationist” government that supports us? Could this be what Iraq is trying to provoke?