War with Iraq is inevitable at this point. Hussein isn’t going to disarm, and Bush isn’t going to back down. There are lots of people out there who think we’re going after the wrong country, and no I don’t mean North Korea. Most of the people who bring up North Korea do so to discredit an attack on Iraq, and aren’t seriously suggesting an attack on North Korea. No, I’m referring to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi’s supplied the money and people, and the Egyptians supplied the brains for 9/11 in their view.
There’s a big problem in attacking Saudi directly – they hold Mecca. If you’re worried about the Islamic street, infidels in Mecca is the biggest possible provocation of the street. So America directly attacking and occupying Saudi Arabia might cause far more unrest than Iraq. As I’ve said before, Iraq holds the central position in the Middle East – hold Iraq and you border Syria, Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. There is no better place to lean on the bad boys (and support what passes for good boys in those parts) of the area than Iraq. And if America needs to change regime’s in Saudi Arabia, bases in Iraq, and Iraqi (or Jordanian) troops to occupy Mecca would come in very handy. Now I’m not saying that’s a plan, but I have to think it’s occurred to the Pentagon and the Saudi equivalent that a US backed post-Saddam Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia is sufficiently doable that you’d never actually have to do it.
