Djelloul Marbrook

Do you remember the know-it-all, condescending tones with which Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and Kenneth Pollack explained why it was imperative we invade Iraq? Well, keep those tones in mind now that the White House is voicing frustration with its erstwhile ally, Saudi Arabia. The complaint is that the Saudis are supplying Iraq’s beleaguered Sunni minority with arms and money.

Did anybody in his or her right mind expect the neighboring Sunni Arabs to stand by and watch Iraq’s newly empowered Shia government deliver an Arab country to their Shia pals in Iran, a non-Arab country and traditional enemy of the Gulf and Saudi Arabs? Apparently the condescenders in Washington did.

The Sunnis have watched in consternation as a ham-handed Uncle Sam barged into Iraq and turned it over to Iran, our enemy and the ancient enemy of the Sunnis. How could the United States have been so stupid? they have been asking themselves. And the White House’s answer has been, Oh, it was easy.

No one with even a modest knowledge of Islamic and Arab history can view what has happened with anything but a gasping incredulity.

To stomp our feet and petulantly complain about Saudi interference now is either dumb show or the latest installment in neoconservative hypocrisy. It’s almost as mind-boggling as supposing in the first place that when Iraq’s Shia majority came to power it would not ally itself with Iran.

When will this parade of bungles end?

—DM