Democracy is messy - Donald Rumsfeld

This is big. Iraq's transitional PM Ibrahim Jaafari, in a historic meeting with Iran's President Mohammed Khatami restored relations between the two countries and reached an agreement "to discuss security and the control of their long border." They will also share intelligence.

The political symbolism of restoring relations is huge, says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran.

After decades of no diplomatic relations, Iraq now has a prime minister who has spent years in exile in Iran and heads a Shia-dominated government sympathetic to its neighbour, she says.

Isn't that comforting. Our new democracy in Iraq makes a pact with the devils in the Axis of Evil. I hope the silver lining here is that Bush at least won't be able to open up a new front in this mad war on terror in Iran.

Bill Quick, who points us to this news is pissed.

We sacrificed almost two thousand troops for this? War is peace. Surrender is victory. Great.

I would amend that to say, war is folly and speedy withdrawal is victory. After all the lies that brought us into this war, an honest assessment is in order. We can wait two years, ten years, we can turn it into a 100 year war, but we're never going to win. There will always be terrorists.

It time to cut our losses, bring our troops home and remove the deceiving schemers in the White House who got us into this mess in the first place from office.