The United States has been pressing the Iraqis to disarm the troublesome (Shi'a) militias. The Arab regimes and their owned and paid-for media have been quite noisy about disarming the militias, as well as installing a quasi-military dictatorship. Now the US military is arming new (Sunni) militias, who just happen to be the ones busy killing American soldiers and Iraqis over the past four years. They probably also just happen to be the Ba'athist officers who gassed Kurds, massacred Shi'as and pillaged Kuwait. These new /old militias will surely prove more troublesome than the others.
So what is the policy now: disarm and disband the militias, or arm them??

Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, reported this past week by the British press (The Guardian, BBC, etc.) to have received paybacks (a.k.a bribes) worth 1 billion pounds (about $ 2 billion) for an arms sales deal to Saudi Arabia while he was in Washington, said in an interview that "Saudi Arabia did not invent corruption". Ok, true, but then neither did Hitler invent aggressive wars and genocide- he just perfected them. Most Arab media, including newpapers, did not carry the report of the kickpacks. Al-Jazeerah, which has a running feud with the Saudi media did run it, as did a few Lebanese papers and one Kuwaiti newspaper (Al-Qabas).

Some media in the Gulf are debating whether to blame the last hurricane Guno that devastated the southern Gulf on Iranian mullahs and their agents, Syrian Ba'athists, or sneaky Zionists. The fundie Salafis tend to take it as a sign of God's wrath for even thinking of allowing women to drive.
Cheers
Mohammed