U.S. Agrees To Regional Diplomacy?!? {*Faints*}

Here's some big news this week... not a major shift in U.S. policy, but a slight turn-

Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, have agreed to join U.S. and British representatives at a regional conference here on the Iraqi security crisis, government officials said Wednesday...

..."Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, even the U.S and Britain have informed us they will participate," he said, although Tehran has said publicly it has made no decision. Abawi also said China had agreed to attend...

....Washington's willingness to attend the conference marked a diplomatic turnabout after months of refusing dialogue with Tehran over calming the situation in Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the United States would join the meeting and that Washington supported the Iraqi government's invitation to Iran and Syria...

...Iran has said in past months it is willing to meet with the United States to discuss how to calm the violence in Iraq. But tensions have increased dramatically between the two countries recently...

This doesn't really change anything in terms of the nuclear debate with Iran, but at this point any day in which the U.S. is agreeing to a diplomatic summit Iran is also involved with rather than threatening them with war is probably a good day. The soft bigotry of low expectations at work.

I think it's safe to say, though, that this was all the State Department's doing and that Cheney and other White House hardliners are mumbling violently to themselves right now.

Their ideological brethren, the brave laptop/thinktank warriors known as neoconservatives, are indeed very angry at this diplomatic turn of events. More violence now, please!!

(Oh, and that Iranian weapons story? It continues to fizzle out. But it will live on as legend.)

And for the cynics out there, I must highlight this part-

The Bush administration waited to embrace the idea until Iraq had made progress on a law governing national distribution of oil revenue...

...The failure of Iraq's parliament to pass the oil law has been an irritant in U.S.-Iraqi relations. The difficulty is symbolic of Iraq's regional, factional and political divisions, and passage is seen by the United States as a key marker of the government's will and ability to work across those divides.

Ahhh, there we go. There's that old reliable oil angle we know and love.

Finally, our new military chiefs in chief of the Iraq situation are giving us yet another-- yep, you guessed it-- six months to finish this war. And if you believe that they really mean this final last push this time, I have some African yellowcake I'd to sell you.