Before the invasion of Iraq, one of the neocon arguments in favor of invading was that a US takeover there would contribute, in some mysterious, unspecified way, to solving the Palestinian issue.

Now, Tom Friedman is arguing that we desperately need to broker a solution to the Palestinian issue because that will contribute to settling things down in Iraq. And, unusually for Friedman these days, he even has an argument that makes sense: right now, the US is perceived by most Arabs as working hand in glove with Ariel Sharon. And they aren't even sure who's the hand and who's the glove. So long as that persists, anyone who claims to be our ally will have a share of that taint.

So, not only has the invasion saddled us with an urgent new problem, in trying to manage the seething stew of politics in Iraq (where the Pentagon and the Iranian mullahs are trying to prop up their proxy factions, each with its own army, two hostile Kurdish factions are jockeying for position in the north, two hostile Shiite factions are jockeying for position in the South, and cadres of the former Baath regime lurk in the background, down but not out), it has also made an intractable old problem more urgent.

Nice going, guys.