According to some of our newspapers this morning, there is now so much pressure from America's "allies" all round the world that Bush may be willing, after all, to seek United Nations backing for a war, or at least, a new UN resolution for weapons inspections in Iraq.
On the face, this is an amazing volte face -- and, really, is little short of suggesting that Cheney and Rumsfeld have been idiots in their recent bellicose speeches when, after all, they were fully aware that international opinion and fierce criticism within Congress were almost unanimously against US policy already. The interesting thing is that David Rennie, the Daily Telegraph's man in Washington, is saying that officials in Washington and at the president's ranch in Crawford are engaged in "fierce discussions" over this. Have rumours of this been leaked on purpose? It looks to me as though officials are indeed preparing the ground for a possible change of tack on Bush's part. But if Bush does change tack then he'll have to give more substantive reasons than "Sorry, folks, we didn't realise that we'd upset so many people." I still think that the answer lies in the effect of Bush's meeting with Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador, on Tuesday -- that is, for the royal family to get smart, and to start unhitching the Saudi constitution from Islamic law, and to seriously root out the extremists and the al Qaeda network within their country. Whether the modernists within the Saudi royal family will succeed, I've little idea -- though my hypothesis implies that it has a good chance. If it does happen -- and once the possibilities for a more stable Middle East become so much more promising (among other things, it would greatly improve the chances of president Khatami and other reformers in Iran) -- then Bush will have a face-saving reason for agreeing to approach the UN for a new resolution. So I think that the next important news will be of big changes within the Saudi Arabian government. They changed their constitution radically (in the favour of the fundamentalists) immediately after Gulf War I. I don't see why they can't modify their constitution again in order to prevent what they imagine to be a potential Gulf War II. If these changes don't happen within the next week or so, then I cannot imagine that Bush will change his present policy. I'm not expecting Bush to say anything significant for a little while. He's waiting for news from Riyadh, just as I am. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
