Bush and The Saudis - The Saga Turns a Corner

When I read the other day in The Washington Post that the Saudi Ambassador to the US had abruptly informed Sec State Rice that he had resigned and then immediately flew home I said to myself "hhhmmmm". The man had only been on the job for 15 months and there was no formal notification from the Kingdom. There still hasn't been. Also, prior to his appointment he'd been the head of Saudi intelligence. That's one of those details that always raises my interest.

I expected another shoe.

This might be it.

The New York Times reports today that the Saudis have notified the Bush administration that they will likely begin funding the Sunnis should a full scale sectarian war result when the US pulls troops out of Iraq. This message was evidently delivered to none other than Dick Cheney when he was summoned...ooops...when he visited Riyadh a couple of weeks ago following the Republican mid-term election rout.

There is of course more to it, there always is when it comes to the Saudis and their internecine power struggles.

But the effect is that the US, at least on the subject of Iraq, is now explicitly being played as a puppet of the Saudis.

It remains to be determined whether the puppetry will be able to influence other areas of US foreign policy.

But let no one say it's about oil.