Maryland Conservatarian

Here’s the tease on the home page of washingtonpost.com:

Report: Saudis Warn They May Back Iraqi Sunnis

…which sounds as if it could be a major problem to our efforts there. So we follow the link and the actual article is headed:

Report: Saudis Warn Against US Pullout

Okay now, despite the constant harping about how everyone over there hates our presence, we read an intimation that maybe the Saudis don't want to fight us but instead want us to succeed. Perhaps all this talk about an early exit has a few people nervous. So we read the AP report:

“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.”

The New York Times? You’re scaring all of us based on a NY Times report?

Here’s the response from the White House:

“That's not Saudi government policy," press secretary Tony Snow said in Washington.”

And sure enough, nothing from the Saudis would back up the Times on this.

The Saudis are predominantly Sunni, Iran is predominantly Shiite and of course Iraq has the two groups battling it out. Were the Saudis to officially support Sunni terrorists in Iraq, they would be supporting the very people they were afraid of when they welcomed us in 1990-91. So I'm a bit wary...and not just because it comes from the NY Times.

Were the Saudis to do so, I’m sure they could rationalize such support as an intended defensive measure against a growing Iranian powerbase. The Saudis do nothing gratuitously and nothing if they don't have to. And remember, such support for these terrorist only begins with a U.S. pullout and, Speaker Pelosi and friends notwithstanding, that ain’t happening soon.