Strange Bedfellows, This Time Not in the Lincoln Bedroom but in the East Room

Juan Cole, on Democratic criticism of the Iraqi P.M., a member of the Dawa party (one of the largest parties in the Iraqi government of "national unity"):

The members of Congress also don't seem to realize that the Iraqi Dawa helped to form the Lebanese Hizbullah back in the early 1980s. The Dawa was in exile in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut and it formed a shadowy terror wing called, generically, Islamic Jihad. The IJ cell of the Dawa attacked the US and French embassies in Kuwait in 1983, in an operation probably directed by the Tehran branch, which was close to Khomeini.

My understanding is that Nuri al-Maliki was the bureau chief of the Dawa cell in Damascus in the 1980s. He must have been closely involved with the Iraqi Dawa in Beirut, which in turn was intimately involved in Hizbullah. I am not saying he himself did anything wrong. I don't know what he was doing in specific, other than trying to overthrow Saddam, which was heroic. But, did they really think he was going to condemn Hizbullah and take Israel's side?

OK, let me get this straight. The Iraqi P.M., our friend and ally in the war(s) against the terrorists, with whom our president held a press conference in the East Room of the White House yesterday, was the bureau chief of an Islamist party in Damascus in the 1980s, and was involved or even helped set up Hezbollah . . . . Today, of course, our leaders tell us that "Hezbollah is a terrorist organization." But this guy, standing next to the president in the East Room, has ties with that "terrorist organization." But that never gets brought up, by anyone, other than Juan Cole?

I can see that the terrorists were Saddam's enemies, and Saddam was "our" enemy, so the enemies of our enemy are our friends. But. But, doesn't that mean that we are no longer actually fighting against the terrorists? At least, I guess, not against the Shia ones.

Don't try to bring Iran into this. It will make your head explode.