Listening to NPR on the way home...I had NO idea how GREAT the surge was going.

"General David Patraeus will deliver his progress report on Iraq next month. It has become one of the most highly anticipated assessments of the war. But over the past few weeks, the White House and the Pentagon have carefully started laying the foundation for the theme of the report, and the theme is based on a familiar word: progress."

"The message is part of a concerted White House and Pentagon effort to preempt any serious political opposition to the idea of extending the troop surge."

"The message is part of a concerted White House and Pentagon effort to preempt any serious political opposition to the idea of extending the troop surge."

Iran and Syria: An Alliance Shaped by Mutual Foes

Over the last quarter-century, Iran and Syria have sustained a strong partnership, which many experts see as an odd coupling.

Syria is a secular regime and, in the 1980s, its army gunned down thousands of Islamist revolutionaries and jailed many more. Iran, on the other hand, touts revolution under the banner of Islam, according to Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.

"It's unlikely at one level," Malley says. "I mean, there's one very secular and one very religious regime. One is Arab, one is Persian. One has negotiated with Israel, the other one has had no dealings with Israel. And, yet, they have found common interests and enemies, and that's what's made this relationship both intriguing and extremely solid."

Common Enemies

Officials in Damascus offer a list of reasons for the partnership, but they say that what it boils down to are common enemies.

"We believe that the American agenda in the Middle East — it's so dangerous for the people in the Middle East. Iran believes same. We believe that Israel is our enemy — this is exactly what Iran believes," says Mohammed Habash, head of the Iranian Syrian Friendship Committee in Parliament.

Common enemies have led to common economic interests, according to Abdullah Dardan, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

"It's political and economics. Can you separate the two? Naturally, we have good political relations. Most of the businessmen who come from Iran are telling us they see a virgin land for investment," Dardan says.

Iran has poured about $3 billion into Syria for an oil refinery, a car factory and cooperation agreements for telecommunications, housing and agricultural projects.

Syrians, however, have never quite warmed to the alliance.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12635901