Bush's touching pas de deux with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah notwithstanding, the desert kingdom has once again found itself at the center of controversy, as NBC news has uncovered an audiotape of the chief justice of the Kingdom's Supreme Judicial Council encouraging Saudi citizens to go to Iraq to fight the U.S.

Now, I think the Iraq war was a mistake, but I can't say that I like the idea of our "allies" in the House of Saud inciting their citizens to murder our servicemen and women. And, of course, this is not the first such incident. From their possible involvement in financially supporting the 9/11 hijackers, all the way down to this latest insult, the Saudis keep bitch-slapping us, and we keep taking it.

And how does Bush, the national security president, respond? With a little bit of old-fashioned Texas-style canoodling, that's how. He will do anything to keep the oil flowing. Fattening the pockets of his cronies in the oil industry is job one for W. Everything else, even the lives of our soldiers in Iraq, is secondary.  ¶ 3:52 PM