The Lebanaization of Iraq has started already -- fun! According to the Washington Post (Iran-Backed Militia Seen Moving Into Iraqi Kurdish Zone), the Badr brigade, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia, is moving into Iraq so as not to miss any of the coming war, or its aftermath.

Estimates of the Badr Brigade's overall strength range from 5,000 to 30,000, but Kurdish officials say that only several hundred have arrived at this little town 40 miles south of Sulaymaniyah and 11 miles west of the Iranian border. The brigade's overall leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said in an interview last month at his Tehran headquarters that most of the militia is already living in Iraq, ready to retrieve hidden weapons and spring into action at a moment's notice.
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Unlike Turkey, which is preparing to send tens of thousands of troops into northern Iraq in the event of war to guarantee its interests, Iran has made no move to involve itself directly. But it has hosted the Badr Brigade since 1983 and made clear that it, too, has interests in Iraq.

"If anyone is seen dabbling, the Iranians will dabble, too," said a foreign diplomat in Tehran.
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Hakim also termed "dangerous" a U.S. plan to install an American general as governor of Iraq while a transitional government is put in place.

We haven't had Iran-backed Shi'i groups rubbing shoulders with American troops since Beirut in 1982. Don't you think Bush is taking this whole wanting-to-be-Reagan thing kind of far?

On the bright side, this presages a wonderful opportunity for a new generation of Americans to familiarize itself with the word “Ayatollah.”