Iran, driving the reformers into the arms of the hardliners.

Juan Cole has a short but very important closing paragraph this morning.

In other news, Iranian president Muhammad Khatami threatened that Iran would turn into "a scorching hell" to fight off any intervention by Americans. Khatami began in 1997 by being a liberal who called for a "diaologue of civilizations". Many observers were taken aback by the vehemence of the moderate's language. The Bush administration may well be driving the reformers into the arms of the hardliners.

As it eyes Iran the Bush administration is oblivious to the cultural and nationalistic factors in play. This is one of the "good" guys not an Ayatollah telling us to keep out.