Your Turn: Gotta Hand It To 'Em?

In the middle of last week, Rummy makes a surprise visit to Baghdad.  Is he there to hasten the completion of the Iraqi constitution?  (Apparently, the talk out of Washington is that nobody reads these silly documents anyway.)  Or, is here there to warn al-Jaafari to keep his distance from Iran?

The top image, circulated about five days ago, shows Rummy saying goodbye to Prime Minister al-Jaafari.  The second shot — depicting a meeting recently between Iran’s Mohammad Khatami and al-Jaafari — ran this past Sunday in the NYT Week in Review (Iraq Dances With Iran, While America Seethes – link).

Here’s where I need some help:  What’s the deal with all the hand language?  (And, could Rummy possibly be trying to draw al-Jaafari into a game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors?”) 

(image 1: Joe Raedle/Pool/Reuters. Baghdad July 27, 2005 in YahooNews. image 2: Vahid Salemi/Associated Press.  July 31, 2005 in the New York Times Week in Review, p. 3.)