From here:

A scorpion wanted to cross a river, but could not swim. So he asked a frog to ferry him across on his back. “Certainly not,” said the frog, “If I take you on my back, you’ll sting me.”

“No I won’t,” said the scorpion, “because if I do, we’ll both drown.”

The frog saw the logic in this, so he let the scorpion hop on, and struck out across the water. Half way across, he felt a terrible pain. The scorpion had stung him. As the two of them sank below the ripples, the frog asked the scorpion: “Why on earth did you do that?”
Replied the drowning scorpion, “Because this is the Middle East.”

Also: An interesting article examining the prospect of any renewed war on Iraq.