WHICH CLICHE TO CHOOSE?

Honestly, the mind races. How about, "charity begins at home"? or maybe, "what comes around goes around"? Nah. That gets us dangerously close to "well the chickens have certainly have come home to roost." But it is a little hard to avoid at least thinking about that one looking at this marvelous headline from today's Times, "Saudis Support a Jihad in Iraq, Not Back Home." Gee, really sorry that hasn't worked out y'all. Guess it's dangerous to grab a tiger by the tail. (Oops! There goes another one!) But apparently what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. (All right, all right, I'll stop. But you tell me if that isn't exactly what this means:

In Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of the United States, violence against the occupation in Iraq is seen by many as jihad, or a holy struggle, but virtually no one accepts violence as jihad when it unrolls here at home, in the heart of what is supposed to be the most Muslim of countries.

There isn't really the sense that the people of Saudi have totally signed on to the full cooperation thing:

"May God curse you, you vermin, you people of filth and not jihad," said a posting on one of the same Web sites where the responsibility claim was posted, adding, in case anyone missed the point, a picture of coffins draped in American flags over the caption, "This is jihad."

I love the argument made by the Saudis that they don't want to support this so to "let off steam" they're letting the imams rail against the Americans. Right. That might let the imams let off steam but you know, I know, and they know, for the population that whips things up to a feaver pitch. If they wanted to discourage these attitudes they'd hold the sermons and the press back, not push them forward.

None of this suggests any change in Saudi attitudes after attacks inside the kingdom, any fellow feeling, any sense whatsoever that we're all in this together -- because they simply don't feel that. The truth is they're more than happy to see these attacks as legitimate methods. So long as they're used against us.