Guardedly Good News to Sleep On.

I say 'guardedly' because King Abdullah II left himself a good bit of wiggle room, but he's still showing public support for the new Iraqi government, including the possibility* of troops if necessary.

In an interview Thursday with the British Broadcasting Corp. television "Newsnight" program, Abdullah said he wanted to support Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's interim government, which recently assumed control from the U.S.-led coalition.

"I presume that if the Iraqis ask us for help directly, it would be very difficult for us to say no," he said during the interview in London. "Our message to the president or the prime minister is: Tell us what you want. Tell us how we can help, and you have 110 percent support from us."

Every bit helps, and Jordan's certainly in a position to appreciate a stable Iraq, not to mention a quietly grateful American government. This story is not the sign of a rapidly-approaching Golden Age, but neither is it bad news; and we would all do well to remember that there are groups and movements in the Middle East that are quietly working for stabilization, too.

And now to bed, for I am tired and my weekend will be very entertainingly long.

Moe

PS: King Abdullah II would also like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolved, presumably (and like both President Bush and myself) in a two-state form. Does anybody here have a major objection to making him be the point man for that? Not that I have that sort of power, alas and thank God.

*The title's more emphatic about that than the text would justify - which is, unfortunately, a common and often justified complaint about newspaper article titles.

Comments

[JP]

Abdullah's doing this to get Zarqawi:

"But after the war, Zarqawi dedicated himself to overthrowing Jordan's King Hussein, while Bin Laden eyed bigger targets. Following a stint of several years in a Jordanian jail for plotting against the regime, Zarqawi returned to Afghanistan, where he built training camps and established his group, al-Tawhid. He retained his focus on Jordan, with the added goal, as one trainee put it, 'to kill Jews everywhere.'"