So Saudi King Fahd is dead. I’ll be eager to see who the White House sends to that funeral. Hope it’s the gardener.
Note this from the AP report:
The portly, goateed Fahd inadvertently helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism by making concessions to hard-liners in an effort to boost his Islamic credentials. But he also brought the kingdom closer to the United States and agreed to a step that enraged many conservatives: basing U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
What an odd bit of writing that is: First, how do we know he “inadvertently” helped fuel the rise of Islamic extremism? Second, what an odd segue from People-magazinish adjectives — “portly, goateed” — into the tipping point for the clash of civilizations.
