NEW YORK – May we drill now, please?
At this writing, circumstances in the Middle East may change between this sentence and my last paragraph.
What began in mid-December as an uprising that sent Tunisian President Ben Ali into Saudi exile Jan. 14 quickly inspired Cairo’s Tahrir Square rebellion. Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 29 years, hastily retired when his people hounded him from Heliopolis Palace into his vacation compound in Sharm el-Sheikh.
Two Iranian war ships this week floated north through the Suez Canal. This was the Iranian Navy’s first appearance in the Arab equivalent of the Panama Canal since 1979’s revolution installed the Ayatollah Khomeini and his joyless, sexist, bloodthirsty theocracy.
Eastern Libya now is controlled by regular citizens, freshly armed by soldiers who largely disobeyed orders to shoot their fellow citizens. Strongman Moammar Gadhafi ordered two fighter jets to bomb his constituents, prompting the pilots to defect to Malta.
“I have not yet ordered the use of force,” Gadhafi said Tuesday night. “When I do, everything will burn.”
Time.com reports that Gadhafi has instructed his operatives to sabotage Libya’s oil fields, supposedly to show Libyans that without Gadhafi, things could get really crazy. Libyan production already is down 25 percent, and Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol have suspended operations there.
In Bahrain’s capital of Manama, Pearl Squa… >>>
