I don't know if you get the N.Y. Times but in my local paper today Sun-Sentinel.com is an opinion from Wm Safire the noted, famous and conservative columnist. He was a speach writer for Nixon and quite close to him. He offers a Middle East senerio that spell binding.
The article is for sale at the following url (evidently the NYTimes is having a money crunch).
It may be available on the Sun-Sentinel.com tomorrow it appears they wait a day for the release on the internet.
http://search.nytimes.com/plweb-cgi/...query_rule=%28$query%29&query1=thedbs%3Dpast30days%26submit.x%3D5%26submit .y%3D6%26section%3DALL%26fields%3DALL%26thequery%3 Dnixon&query2=sorting%3DBYFIELD%3A-skey_pdate&query7=nixon&query8=from%20the%20past%2030%20days&docid=116718&docdb=2001arc&dbname=unify&numresults=10&sorting=BYFIELD%3A-skey_pdate&operator=AND&TemplateName=MPoff.tmpl&setCookie=1