NEGOTIATING WITH THE BLACK KNIGHT :

Saudi to Warn Bush of Rupture Over Israel Policy (PATRICK E. TYLER, Apr 25, 2002, The New York Times)

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is expected to tell President Bush in stark terms at their meeting today that the strategic relationship between their two countries will be threatened if Mr. Bush does not moderate his support for Israel's military policies, a person familiar with the Saudi's thinking said on Wednesday. [...]

In a bleak assessment on Wednesday, the person close to the crown prince said there was talk within the Saudi royal family and in Arab capitals of using the "oil weapon" against the United States, and demanding that the United States leave strategic military bases in the region.

Such measures, he said, would be a "strategic debacle for the United States."

He also warned of a general drift by Arab leaders toward the radical politics that have been building in the Arab street.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, a dumbfounded Winston Churchill, who until then had been futilely trying to get America to enter the war, asked : "What kind of a people do they think we are?" Though their mistake was Britain's great, good fortune, he could not believe they were so stupid as to believe they could attack the U.S. and not pay a horrible price.

If the Crown Prince actually has the temerity to deliver this message, somewhere in Heaven tonight, Mr. Churchill will turn to Clementine and ask again :

What kind of people do they think we are?

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 25, 2002 3:49 PM