KING ABDULLAH: SLEEPLESS IN RIYADH

Oil prices, driven by ratcheting tension over the Iranian seizure of fifteen British sailors, bored through $66/barrel today closing at a 6 month high-- Adding to the upsurge in regional anxiety, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia chastised the American occupation as illegal imploring other Arab leaders to patch up political animosities or continue being dictated to by foreign powers like the US-- Are these comments just designed for Arab Leaguers and will tomorrow then beget business as usual or is there a rift developing between the Sunni Saudi Royalty and Lame Duck Bush??--

State Sec Condi Rice on Monday called on Arab Governments to"begin reaching out to Israel,"-- Not exactly the warmest of rejoinders from the Saudi King to the posturing Secretary but lest his pointed remarks missed their target he added point blank "It has become necessary to end the unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinian people as soon as possible so that the peace process can move in an atmosphere far from oppression and force."-- This sounds like the attempted 'Redirection' the Bush crew sought by swinging toward the Sunni side of the mayhem ledger in Iraq in order to lessen the Iranian influence among the Iraqi Shia, is not progressing as smoothly as planned--

Ann Coulter and Robert Kagan, mahogany-foxholed at the AEI, proclaim, as do many in mainstream media, undeniable success so far for Bush's Surge but Iraq's unceasing plethora of record setting car bombs last month proclaim something else entirely-- Now March's rate is on track and tempo to surpass February's record high bloodmark and the adaptability and persistence of these sectarian antagonists to continue expansion of their mayhem in the face of The Surge may be one reason the Saudi King feels confident enough to challenge Bush so publicly on the legality of his occupation-- Bush is not winning and cannot win and King Abdullah knows it-- Is Abdullah's plea for Arab unity a call to arms against the dictates of foreign occupation??-- Has Abdullah lost faith in the Bush's war policy??-- Does Abdullah think the Surge is succeeding??-- Reports from the Washington Post indicate Abdullah will cut and run from the state dinner the White House had planned in the King's honor sometime in April-- Lame Duck, anyone??--

That the Saudis themselves give aid and comfort to the Sunni insurgents is a given subject neither the administration nor the hometown media wish to breach to the general public or to the mal-informed demie majority in congress, but more Americans, by a long shot(no pun intended), have been killed in Iraq by the Saudi-aided Sunni insurgents than by the Iranian-aided Shiite killers-- A fact not too likely to be bandied about on 'Hardball' and certainly one not conducive to a fresh Sunni-American alliance, restoration of Baathist participation or victorious strategy-- 'There are no good options' has been the omnipresent shibboleth to the Realist realm of America's failing Foreign Policy but the word 'no' has not gained penetration into the inner sanctum of DC's omnipresent denial--

Seymour Hersh's article , 'The Redirection', paints the Saudi Kingdom as scared to death of Iran's sudden influential ascendancy into the great Middle Eastern Void created by the Neocon Shock and Awe and the utterly stupid dissolution of the Iraqi Army by Rummy's Boy Wonder Paul Bremer-- Iraq, as a country, has been murdered and Pandora herself must be keeping Abdullah sleepless in Riyadh-- Hersh described a Saudi/ American/ Israeli consort aiming at taking down Iran with massive aerial bombardment-- Uncertainty over who would fly the mission and pull its deadly trigger, considering the lack of political coin nabob Bush and slithery Olmert merit from low polls and lack of trust on each's home-front, might have gummed up the best laid plans of desperate men but the US Aircraft Carriers still continue to practice and maneuver in or near the Persian Gulf with one more carrier recently dispatched to join the others--

Fifteen sailors from Lame Duck Tony Blair's Royal British Empire managed to get themselves captured in disputed waters further roiling the region-- Blair upped the volume button on his professional outrage yesterday which only accentuated his ministerial weakness before replicating The Rose Garden and setting up camp-- One million dollars apiece and a covert state-of-the-art arms-for-hostages deal facilitated by clandestine repo campaign operators conjunct then wondrous ally Israel was the Ayatollah's ransom, yet Senor Reagan disavowed his own ban on negotiating with terrorists and then not so reluctantly paid it-- The hostages came home on Inauguration day and then it was Morning in America, again-- Five Iranians considered some kind of embassy personnel by Iran and captured inside Iraq and held still by the US merit potential bargaining chip status-- Latest word from Britain comes in concialtory tones seeking quick resolution to the problem a gambit Ahmadinejad did not immediately embrace--

The downward manipulation of oil prices last fall in vain effort to derail the demies from their electoral victory-by-default cost Ahmadinejad and his oil coffers a thinned out profit or two-- So expect this tempest to linger for a while barring, of course, a botched raid by Brit Commandos-- Turnabout may be fair play except that the immediate health of the American economy finds itself jeopardized by surging oil prices, surging corn prices, surging foreclosures, delinquencies and defaults plus downward spiraling housing sales, housing prices, housing starts and new housing permits to mention a just a handful of many convergent threats-- Waiting.......