Let's be honest with ourselves. Iran is winning the GWOT. The US has destroyed antagonistic Sunni regimes on their borders in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their influence in Iraq is so widespread the Chicago Tribune reports they're even offering to finance Sunni political parties.

Our Army can't sustain the occupation much longer and even if it could our military presence exacerbates the Iraqi civil war. The occupation is the major impediment to peace. Profesionals from General Odom, Admiral Zinni and Congressman Murtha say as much. So what to do in Iraq?

I have a proposal that flies in the face of the conventional wisdom. That "wisdom" says if we pull out of Iraq there will be genocide. The war will grow exponentially and possibly engulf the whole region. We'd have a Sunni on Shiite war that would shut the Strait of Hormuz and destroy the oil fields that supply 40% of the industrial world's greasy lifeblood. Below the jump I posit a different future and a plan to get there. I'm sure many will be appalled but the purpose of this post is to get people to think beyond the projections of an administration that hasn't been right about anything and the oh, so serious media that has followed them in lockstep.

I call this proposal the George Costanza theory of foreign policy. Everything George Bush has tried is wrong. He makes decisions based on his gut instincts. By the George Costanza theory we should do the opposite of what Bush's instincts tell him to do.

So why not turn Iraq over to Iran and Syria? The Syrians can get the Saudis to pony up the cash to finance their occupation in Anbar. We'll bug out to Kurdistan and Kuwait. The Iranians can set up a protectorate in the South with their own money. Let their soldiers drive around waiting to get blown up. Let their kids kick in doors as a way to make friends and influence people.

What's the worst that could happen? The Iraqis aren't going to be any happier being ruled by neighbors who have beggered their own countries. In the South how many Iranians speak Arabic? How many Iraqis speak Farsi? How many Iranians and Shiite Iraqis still remember the ghastly 1980s war they fought against each other? How many want a repeat? Seems to me if Iraqi Shiites were ever going to sign up for Iranian rule they would have grabbed the chance to march on Baghdad to overthrow Saddam with them then.

No, the liklihood of Iraqis enjoying Iranian style theocracy is about as good as them accepting the lazzez faire, libertarian, free-for-all Wolfowitz tried to impose on Iraq. There's also no better way to discredit terrible forms of government than to get foreign occupiers to try to enforce them at the point of a gun. Ask the Soviets.

Syrian and Iranian troops might even come to blows in Baghdad, a neocon dream. If that happens Hezbollah can forget about getting Iranian missiles via Syria. Hamas will have to make new banking arrangements. It might even bring down the Syrian and/or Iranian governments. Nobody likes leaders who get their country mired in a hostile occupation.

But what if they succeed at pacifying Iraq? What if they're greeted with candy and flowers? Good! Islamic countries have proven themselves abysmal at making modern warfare. They don't produce one tank or plane. In decades of trying they haven't been able to throw 5 million Israelis into the sea even though they outnumber them millions to one and have all that oil wealth to buy weapons. They're so bad at warfighting they've resorted to suicide bombings and other sorts of tactics that while hard to stop speak to the futility and desperation of their efforts. Makes 'em look loony too.

Maybe being peacemakers instead will give them ideas. Succeeding where the mighty USA failed would give them some well deserved credibility and desperately needed self respect. It'd go a long way to proving that Islam is indeed chockful of peaceniks. At the very least it'd keep them busy. It'd probably cost them as much as we've been spending on Iraq and frankly I don't think Iran would have enough left over to try to build nukes.

As an added bonus it'd probably put Mark Steyn, Victor Davis Hanson and Charles Krauthammer out of work.

So go ahead and tear this post apart. But remember my point. Every instinct George Bush has is wrong. So like George Costanza we ought do the opposite of what George's instincts tell him to do. Iran and Syria are dirt poor countries and that's getting worse. They don't have militaries that can invade and occupy the middle east, let alone make amphibious landings at the Jersey Shore. They probably don't have the capability to pacify Iraq even though Iran has a 450,000 man army. They might not even have the will. But if we can convince them to embrace Bush's fiasco after we leave why not give it a try? It sure beats letting the Iraq disaster keep wrecking our army and draining our treasury.