The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

(Page 2 of 5)

Long lost in all of this is any sense that Bush's Iraq war is part of the War on Terrorism. In fact, the War on Terrorism may no longer exist in the liberal consciousness. It's becoming a Republican talking point, something akin to the GOP's anti-Communism during the Cold War while the Democrats went McGovernite. Soon enough, at least on the liberal left, the idea of 9/11 as anything momentous will disappear entirely. That war on Saddam was a logical result of 9/11 is the last thing it is prepared to comprehend.

Seizing on phantom WMD must give the left a nice sense of gotcha! But it will leave it clueless to the real reasons for the Iraq war, which most Americans understand intuitively. In simple terms, the U.S. is no longer willing to put up with those who caused it grief beforehand and then regarded the attacks of September 11 as their special victory. The only drawback is that once certain unfinished business is taken care of, a whole new set of problems crop up. The only certainty is that liberal carpers will be of no use in dealing with them.

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p> Saudi, Partner (posted 4/28/03 1:20 a.m.) br> The more things change post-9/11, the more they don't. Fittingly enough, it was a story hidden in the inner recesses of Sunday's news, about what quietly and secretly took place during the Iraq war in an endangered place called Saudi Arabia. /p>

This will not be good news to those who expect Saudi Arabia to go the way of Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, and other despotic players to be named later. As home and practical sponsor of almost every 9/11 hijacker, the Saudis weren't long for this world. Americans had it up here with the treachery of these wayward, creepy allies. Never again would we be fooled. But then as the showdown with Iraq grew hotter, they kind of disappeared from the radar screen.

But now thanks to Michael Dobbs, the Washington Post's excellent diplomatic correspondent, we know more about what's really what -- and how some relationships have a solider core than most wanted to appreciate. The headline is almost deceptively plain: "U.S.-Saudi Alliance Appears Strong." Then this clincher to the introduction, describing five months of "intensive military cooperation between Washington and Riyadh" since last October: "Saudi Arabia ended up agreeing to virtually every request made by the Bush administration for military and logistical assistance."

This included use of a Saudi air base, use of Saudi staging grounds for special forces operations in western Iraq, and overflight privileges. Perhaps even more importantly, the Saudis increased their oil production to such an extent that by the time the Iraq war started, "world oil prices tumbled from $37 to $27 per barrel." They even built up reserves of crude that guaranteed we'd be supplied.

So this is a regime we're going to do away with? On whose watch?

p> Last Letters br> The

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Business, Islam, Military, Iraq, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Communism, Oil