We Tried to Warn Cheney About Iraq, But 'He Wouldn't Even Listen' ...
April 14, 2006
EDITORIAL
Saudi Arabia - The Saudi - Home Page (English) 
BBC World
Affairs Editor John Simpson recently recalled an interview he conducted some
three years ago with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal,
shortly before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. At the time, Prince Saud
predicted the myriad disasters he believed would follow such an invasion: U.S.
and British troops would be bogged down in Iraq for years; there would be civil
war between Sunnis and Shiites.
"And
what do the Americans say when you tell them this," Simpson asked him. "They
don't even listen," Prince Saud said. When Simpson asked Prince Saud why
he thought the U.S. was so determined to invade Iraq, he said he had put the
same question to Vice-President Dick Cheney who had replied: "Because it's
doable."
Prince
Saud was not alone in predicting the likely consequences of an invasion of
Iraq. American and British diplomats specializing in the Arab world issued
their own warnings and were duly chastised.
Blair
described Britain's diplomatic "Arabists" as misguided. When
governments ignore their own regional experts, this is surely a sign of
intellectual arrogance. When combined with ignorance, this is a lethal
combination. This is what has led to the current situation in Iraq, which many
now characterize as being in the grip of civil war.
But as
Simpson points out, this has been an incremental process since the invasion
took place, brought about by a continuing indifference to the political
realities of Iraq and the region. American outrage over the events of 9/11 was
understandable, but toppling Saddam Hussein only made sense if his regime had
been actively involved in its execution. Saddam's links to al-Qaeda were talked
up as was the possibility that he might supply terrorists with WMDs. The world
now knows that the intelligence on this was either wrong or deliberately
misleading.
As
Simpson points out, the trouble is that undoing the kind of damage Prince Saud
foresaw is proving very difficult indeed.
Place predictions
about the possible consequences of an American attack on Iran on a postcard,
please!
VIDEO FROM IRAN: 'IRAQI SHIITES MORE LOYAL TO IRAN THAN IRAQ'
Al-Arabiya TV, Dubai: Excerpts from an interview with Egyptian President Husni Mubarak, Apr. 8, 00:04:58, Via MEMRI
"The Shiites are always loyal to Iran. Most of them are loyal to Iran and not to the countries in which they live ..."
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak
[LATEST NEWS PHOTOS: Iraq].