As luck would have it, Mr. Annon’s celebration speeches marking the end of his reign as Secretary General of the UN happen to coincide with the debate surrounding the release of the Baker Commission’s ISG report, and in its wake, renewed calls from some quarters for the US to find a graceful way to declare victory and remove itself from Iraq.

Does it strike anyone else as deliciously ironic that even as Mr. Annon praises the UN and its many accomplishments during the course of his tenure, our friends the Saudis, when faced head-on with the prospect of such a US “victory,” tell us that they may be willing to provide arms and other military support to the Iraqi Sunnis to prevent a bloodbath in the vacuum created by our victorious “advance to the rear.”

Why, one might plausibly ask, would our friends the Saudis act unilaterally, and in such a war-like way, rather than trust the diplomatic skills of the World’s Leading Diplomat and the organization he is so proud of, to prevent the bloodbath they fear?

Brian