the riot act

King Abdullah is lucky Dick Cheney didn't shoot him in the face:

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has warned Vice President Dick Cheney that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis if the United States pulls out of Iraq, according to a senior American official.

The official said the king "read the riot act" to the vice president when the two met last month in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Since it seems inevitable that the US will be forced to withdraw from Iraq I imagine we will be seeing what is in effect a proxy war in Iraq between Iran and Saudi Arabia. That's precisely the kind of scenario that can spin radically out of control and engulf the region. I'm sure a civil war between the two major branches of Islam will make the genocidal maniacs in Bush's base happy. Democracy is messy!