Iraq offers amnesty in bid to gain insurgents' help

A Nice Analogy:

On a day when Iranian diplomats were being taken hostage by Iraqis who want Iran to stay out of their business, Iran's state radio has carried a charming statement by Ayatollah Khamanei. He says that America, in Iraq, is "like a trapped wolf."

It is oddly reflective of Jefferson:

We have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self preservation in the other.

Khamanei is righter than he knows. Iran has caught the wolf by the ears. Their activities in support of the insurgency, Hezbollah, and Qaeda elements is the last wrench of their strength to hold on. But the wolf will come free. When it does, it will not be gentler with them than it was with us:

Yet, if God wills that... every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

So surely they would say in Iran, thinking of a different god. Indeed, the attention they have demanded from us is such that we can almost hear the words, that we know many of them: "Inshallah... sayyaf... Allah... halal."

Now they have the wolf by the ears. Let them see where he carries them.