This is going to be a huge story, interesting that it is nearly invisible in the mainstream media. The Kurds, one of the few allies we actually have left in Iraq, are thoroughly pissed at this action and are calling it an illegal kidnapping.

I've been hit and miss when it comes to predictions, but I predict that this is only the beginning of a large new development in Bush's immoral and incompetently waged war.

If you think things couldn't get much worse, just wait until Iran retaliates for this foolish action.

We are currently lucky that Iran is exercising the sort of proper diplomatic restraint that our government failed to do, lodging a complaint through proper channels -- with the Iraqi foreign minister.

My father is a consul for a foreign government, so I've had enough first-hand experiences with the rules regarding consular/local government relations to be conversant on them.

Make no mistake about it, no matter how egregious the Iranian consul's behavior was -- and the Kurdish regional government is reportedly baffled by Chimpy and the Bad Seed's charges about that -- we had, under the Vienna Conventions that provide the rules and standards for dealing with consular relations problems, zero standing to act -- none. If the country in which the consulate is located has a problem with the consul or deputies, that person or persons may be expelled at which point the consul may take or ship any of the consulate property -- papers and computers included -- out under diplomatic seal, meaning that they are to remain private and untouchable by anyone but the consul or consul's designee. Only when diplomatic relations between the two countries have been formally severed and the consulate has been vacated may the property be seized by the country in which it is sited. Until those conditions have been met, the consulate and the consul's residence and vehicles are the territory of their sovereign nation and any breach of them by force can be considered an act of war.

Beyond that our country thus literally and with no legal justification attacked Iran and kidnapped six of their diplomats and staff and stole their diplomatically protected property, we also wantonly put every one of our own consulates in greater danger than they already face due to the aggressive, illegal behavior of our rogue government. One reason we follow the rules about consular relations is that it encourages others to follow the rules where our diplomats and embassies are concerned. When we break them, we cede the moral and legal high ground to the (other) thugs of the world and diminish the hope for peaceful solutions that the very existence of diplomacy presents. Given this administration's prior eschewing of that reasoning regarding the Geneva Conventions, however, I'm hardly surprised that they refuse to get it about the Vienna ones.

We are so far past enough. ITMFA !!!

One more thing...our Congresscritters have all taken an oath to uphold the Constitution -- including our treaty obligations under the Vienna Conventions -- that, when coupled with their oversight responsibility, makes it not unreasonable to expect them to do something about this affront to international civility.

The miscreant claims of Shrub and the Bad Seed ("I want ... my SHOES!" Ferragamo-shopping-instead-of-approving-international-aid-offers-as-was-her-job-to-do-in-the-early-critical-hours-of-Katrina Secretary of State) that this was not an embassy (lies -- the Kurdish regional government had enough autonomy under the Iraqi constitution to approve it) and that it was nothing but a nest of weapons providers (no offers of proof for that accusation, either) notwithstanding, this was clearly an insane provocatorily aggressive act akin to throwing a lit match into a powder keg.

Clearly, this administration is behaving as though the blank check Congress gave them to foment war anywhere has no expectation of the sane exercise thereof attached -- and they're right as it is written. It's long past time that Congress took that checkbook back and require that wars be individually declared and that those declarations be individually Congressionally approved in the manner prescribed by the Founders.

Ask your Congressional delegation if they will, at minimum, do that to forestall similar rogue behavior on your behalf from the criminals now in charge.

Marla's gotten herself all worked up. Nice posts, tho.

I, too, have a close relative long involved in the intellegence and diplomatic communities. Never in over 30 years of work has this relative uttered one word about our foreign policy. Secrecy and tact were supreme.

But Shrub's misguided efforts for the past five years have prompted this relative to quip:

"If he's such a good damned Methodist he belongs in a pew." And related scornful, regretful musings about our nation's horribly-lost status among the world's elite.

And we impeached Bill for a blowjob. Tacky, but hardly world-altering behavior.

Would that we could say the same for Shrub.