Sabres rattling all over the place

It probably began with the Saudis:

Saudi Arabia has warned Washington it might provide financial aid to Iraqi Sunnis in any fighting against Shiites if the U.S. pulls its troops out of Iraq, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Idle speculation suggests that was in response to the ISG report, ironically itself most likely a political ruse, which hints that we're fixing to pull and exit stage west plan. To the east, while he's not threatening to blow Israel off the map the head of state from Iran, Mockmood Hockmadina'jad, was busy holding a Holocaust Denial extravaganza starring David Duke. Maybe he just likes men who wear headgear? Geez, was it any surprise the Israeli PM dropped a hint about the nuke program everyone already knows they have?

CNN/AP reminded us that Dick Cheney recently visited the Saudi Kingdom and was read the riot act. Funny, they quoted a "senior American official" for that description, which means it was probably a Make-Nice Dept (State) operative. But then again, "senior American official" is so ambiguous it could have been someone from Census Bureau, or heck, just an important old guy not even in the government.

It's getting hard to keep up. The Saudis recently pulled their US envoy for unexplained reasons, described in a bit more detail by Tom Macguire. Democrat Congressmen are clandestinely frolicking around the Middle East sucking up to every Arab they can find while their compatriots back home threaten to do something about war appropriations. Funny, the entire government is being funded on a continuing resolution (no passed appropriations) and will be through the end of September according to the pencil pushers.

Amidst all this festive holiday chaos President Bush is trying to lay low with his future Iraq game plan, infuriating the press since they largely believe we should devise war strategy over the internet for all to see, leading to failures, leading to more Bush-bashing Pulitzer Prize-winning stories about the failures.

Yes, it's serious, of course. The central question remains one of side-choosing. Will team Bush choose to side with the Shia, risking an alienation of Jordan and Saudi Arabia and a power bump for a madman and his sidekick? Or will he back the Sunnis, friends of Zarqawi, AQ in Iraq, Saddamists and the bearded cave freaks? Or any of them? A real Maalox Moment for sure, so it's no wonder he wants to spend Christmas thinking it over. Or praying extra hard.

MORE 12/15/06

In my time I've never seen so many Americans roaming around cajoling with our stated enemies. It happened during Vietnam, and now one of those practitioners, John Kerry, is volunteering to do it again. Don't like the elected foreign policy chief? Just go around him!

At the same time, such things are partially (or maybe fully) a result of Bush's floundering leadership and the current state of Iraq.

Still, what--other than capitulation--could Kerry possibly accomplish by talking to Iran? They've made their foreign policy goals quite clear regards Israel:

Don’t use your people’s money to assist this violent regime. This is the best solution. If they do not accept the first solution, then they should allow the nation of Palestine to make their decision about its own fate. Anyone who is a Palestinian citizen, whether they are Christian, Jewish or Muslim, should decide together in a very free referendum. There is no need for war. There is no need for threats or an the atomic bomb either.

In other words, since the "Palestinians" outnumber the Israelis by a significant margin, let the people decide. Heh. And just how would they decide? Yep.

Just the other day Olmert casually slipped out a comment, "ahem, we might have a nuke program". Imagine the fate of such a program should 'the people' of that region be allowed to decide--the same people who elected Hamas.

Truth be told, A'jad knows this will never happen. His goal is to sow seeds of doubt into the American mind, already flummoxed by the thought of a long war. He's like a devil on the shoulder saying, "this is the exit strategy--throw the Jews under the bus". No matter that his rhetoric defies the history of the region and the laws concerning the spoils of war. We've already seen that facts are not an important aspect of the current world dialogue.