Saudis Are a Bunch of Camel Jockeys and the Kurd/Shiite Schism

It is good to speak the truth, it can even be quite liberating. Yet sometimes it is best to hide your true feelings, obfuscate and even lie. That is probably what you should do if you are an Iraqi pol and you are talking about the Saudis. Unfortunately the Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr got a little irritated by Saudi comments about the Shiites in Iraq and he chose to respond by taking the road less traveled and spoke the truth:

"This Iraq is the cradle of civilization that taught humanity reading and writing, and some Bedouin riding a camel wants to teach us. This talk is totally rejected," he said.

He also took a swipe at the Saudi monarchy.

"There are regimes that are dictatorships. They have one God. He is the king, he is God of heaven and earth, and he rules as he likes," Mr. Jabr said. "A whole country is named after a family. If we open these topics without inhibitions, it is neither to our benefit, nor to theirs."

Of more importance is an item mentioned later in the article - the Kurd/Shiite split on the future of PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite. An associate of the President Jalal Talabani has called for Kurds and Shiites to explore the possibility of dropping al-Jaafari.