They hate us for our liberties. And for embracing freedom, they hate the Iraqis, too:

Iran has been using Hamas and Hizbullah as part of plans to impose Teheran's authority in Iraq.

A report by the New York-based Hudson Institute said Iran has been sponsoring and cooperating with a range of Shi'ite insurgency groups in an effort to develop a power base in Iraq. The Shi'ites have been employed to work against U.S. interests and intimidate independent figures within the majority Shi'ite community in Iraq.

"Following the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the Iranian clerical dictatorship has mounted a covert effort to establish an allied Shi'a Islamist extremist regime in Iraq," the report, by senior fellow Constantine Menges, said. "Iran has been preparing to do this for many years and has recruited political, military, and covert agent assets among the hundreds of thousands of Shi'a Iraqis who fled Iraq and have lived in Iran for years."

The report said Iran has tried to dominate Iraq in several ways. Menges cited Iran's use of Iraqi Shi'ite clerics, the establishment of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the cooperation with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr and the use of Hizbullah and Hamas for insurgency attacks on Iraq.

"Engaging" Iran is folly; under totalitarian rule, the country is a sad contradiction, run by terror-master mullahs who step on their pro-Western, pro-democratic population. Helping to properly train and arm Iraqis will help (the Soviet Union armed a dictatorship, now the United States arms a democracy). But Iraqis' future as a free people is tied to that of their neighbors.

GAUNTLET'S DOWN: Iraq's defense minister accuses Iran of its well-known crimes.