Wesley Clark gets Iraq half-right today, but the part he gets wrong is fatal. After an eye-opening trip to the region, during which Sunni Arab leaders in the Gulf and elsewhere told Clark about their fears of Shiite religious power in Iraq, Clark returned to write, in today’s New York Times, that

Iraq’s neighbors, then, see [Iraq] evolving into a Shiite-dominated, Iranian buffer state that will strengthen Tehran’s power in the Persian Gulf just as it seeks nuclear weapons and intensifies its rhetoric against Israel.

Clark calls for “intensified outreach to Iraqi insurgents” and wants to seek their help in ridding Iraq of Al Qaeda-style jihadists. Good, but why would insurgents help the United States against the jihadists without a promise to withdraw U.S. forces?. He wants Iraq to “enforce the ban on armed militias.” Good, but what universe is he living in to think that might happen, since the militias are the government? He wants a “broad initiative to reduce sectarian influence within government institutions.” Good, but, again, in what parallel universe?

Clark ought to stop preparing 2008 campaign speeches in 2005, and start listening to the generals who know a lot more about Iraq than he does.