Puppeteer as Puppet


Big Time might have Shrub's ear, but when the REAL bosses demand someone jump, Dick's only question is "how high?"

Saudi Arabia is so concerned about the damage that the conflict in Iraq is doing across the region that it basically summoned Vice President Cheney for talks over the weekend, according to U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.

Sounds to me like Team Bush is taking somewhat of a nuanced approach towards the kingdom (and, hell, to be fair, every US administration since Roosevelt's has). Funny how wingnut bluster is revealed as just so much hot air when the chips are genuinely down: we ignore Saudi Arabia's known ties to terrorists and terrorism, we excuse their embrace of an extreme form of fundamentalist Islam, and mostly just look the other way when it comes to the kingdom's hostility towards women's rights, democratic principles, rule of law, and so on. Interesting, no?

Now they're yanking Big Time's choke chain.

Something tells me China isn't ignoring this Saudi Arabian power play.