Little things

A little thing: during the war in Iraq there was talk of a red line, crossing which would result in the unleashing of the tremendous and deadly Iraqi chemical arsenal. We know, of course, not only that it didn't exist but also that those saying it knew it didn't exist.

The Roslyn is also a red line, of course. In Iraq the oil fields, which may have been big enough otherwise to despress the oil price and depose the Saudis as the oil kingpins, were delimited at the conference between the seven sister and mister five percent by a "red line".