big duh. big lie. bigger war?

Towards the end of an Alex Johnson/Andrea Mitchell piece ominously titled Saudis Consider Sending Troops to Iraq, you will find this two-sentence paragraph:

Saudi officials reassured Rice on Tuesday that they had no intention of getting in the middle of the dispute between Iran and the United States. Rice emphasized that the U.S. campaign to disrupt Iranian networks threatening U.S. forces in Iraq would be confined within the boundaries of Iraq, officials said.

As for the first sentence: No way! Really? No intention of getting in the middle? Considering the headline above, it seems to me they’d be doing quite the opposite. In fact, that’s exactly the case. Besides telling Condi of their theoretical willingness to sacrifice troops if the US won’t sacrifice troops for them, the Saudis summoned Vice President Cheney last November to make their desires very clear. In the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Saudi royals will not accept a US tilt toward the Shiites.

As for the second sentence: Who was that BS statement intended for, Madam Secretary? Clearly not for the Saudis, but clearly not for anyone who pays attention, either. Beyond what Sy Hersh has been reporting for years now about covert US ops inside Iran, there comes, this morning, news that the Iranians have shot down a pilotless US spy drone within Iran.

Yes, that would be outside the boundaries of Iraq.

There are clearly not enough hours in my night/morning to blog about the myriad of scenarios made possible by these two points. . . but, rest assured, each and every one of them is a cataclysmic nightmare.