Turkey has long maintained relations with both the Iraqi Kurdish organizations and the Baghdad regime.
It appeared that any enemy of the Baghdad regime was a potential ally of the United States.
It has also joined in imposing an arms embargo on the Baghdad regime and in voting mandatory economic sanctions.
Almost immediately, he began a discourse about the durability of the Baghdad regime and how it was not solely reliant on its current leader.
That will require the active cooperation of the Baghdad regime.
Allowing the fueling to go forward meant that the Baghdad regime could eventually get the plutonium to build a nuclear weapon.
The gathering was unusual for factions of such disparate political persuasions, united only in their enmity for the Baghdad regime.
And of course, evidence of Iraqi noncompliance when inspection begins again would be cause for using force against the Baghdad regime.
In fact, as we'll see, the connections between al Qaeda and the old Baghdad regime were limited and tenuous.
There are no clear grounds for Washington's claim that its policy finally served to convince Iran it could not bring down the Baghdad regime.