More Advice From Our Friends

The ruling family of Saudi Arabia has long been a trusted ally of the Bush family, which is why the warning on the current status of Iraq delivered by one of the leading members of the Saudi family should carry some weight.

In today's NY Times, Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments are reported:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said Thursday that he had been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he said could drag the region into war.

"There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together," he said in a meeting with reporters at the Saudi Embassy here. "All the dynamics are pulling the country apart." He said he was so concerned that he was carrying this message "to everyone who will listen" in the Bush administration. ...

Prince Saud's statements, some of the most pessimistic public comments on Iraq by a Middle Eastern leader in recent months, were in stark contrast to the generally upbeat assessments that the White House and the Pentagon have been offering. ...

Prince Saud, who is in Washington for meetings with administration officials, blamed several American decisions for the slide toward disintegration, though he did not refer to the Bush administration directly.

Primary among them was designating "every Sunni as a Baathist criminal," he said.

The prince said he served on a council of Iraq's neighboring countries - Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran and Kuwait as well as Saudi Arabia - "and the main worry of all the neighbors" was that the potential disintegration of Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states would "bring other countries in the region into the conflict."

You would think that George Bush would take such warnings seriously, but apparently you would be wrong. The response from the Administration has been predictable. People voted. They have drafted a Constitution. People will vote again. Everything is working out just fine.

In the meantime, Turkey has made it clear it will invade if the Kurds declare independence. Iran is already cozying up to the Shi'ite majority. Syria and Saudi Arabia, both Sunni in inclination, are watching the insurgency warily but, apparently, with some approval.

By essentially going it alone in this mad excursion, the US now has no viable back-up to assist in providing some common cause for the Iraqis as a nation, unless, of course, one counts the desire to be rid of the US invaders as a common cause.

Even the Saudis are losing patience with the boy-king.