Another day, another diplomatic blunder

In what one supposes was supposed to send some kind of message to Tehran, US forces arrested a bunch of Iranians who were visiting Iraq. The State Department says the Iranians are suspected of meddling in the civil war there. Unfortunately, some of them were Iranian diplomats who were there by invitation of President Talabani.

Talabani's spokesman said the Iraqi president had invited the Iranian officials during his visit to Tehran. It was done "in the framework of an agreement to improve security in Iraq." The spokesman described the Iranians as "security officials."

Hosseini, the Iranian spokesman, said the Iraqi government is responsible for the Iranians' release because it invited them to Iraq and "the occupying forces must be answerable for international law based on their actions."

Just another day of hamfisted foreign policy faux pas on the Bush administration's part but one wonders if we can chalk this up to simple incompetency. Considering the naval buildup in the gulf and the increasingly volatile rhetoric coming from the White House, it sure looks to me that Bush is once again, drawing the proverbial line in the sand and daring Iran to cross it.

As I've been saying lately, I think it's too late to impeach Bush but I'm starting to look rather favorably on the idea of simply defunding our president's ego-driven misadventures.