Washington backed the Saudi offensive nine days ago; the White House is now weighing whether to join it.

…(cont) Then September sixteenth, The Hill, and the word they used was hands-off: the President "reportedly rebuffed a request from Saudi Arabia to launch strikes." So on the sixteenth somebody asked, and the answer that came back was no?

Then October fourth. "US Backs Major Saudi-Led Offensive as Yemen Slides Back Toward All-Out War." Nine days ago, that one. Sorry to park on it, but it's the page I keep turning back to, so let me ask the simple thing: on the fourth, how many people had died at Riyadh's airport?

Because the seventh is when the Houthis claim new attacks on Saudi airports and military bases. The eighth, disruptions at Riyadh airport, ballistic missiles coming in. The ninth, three Saudis killed. The twelfth, fresh missiles and drones after the airport attacks, and by then a week of strikes had killed Americans alongside Saudis. And today the airport is still closed, the barrage hit the main terminal, massive damage, at least thirteen dead over the weekend, and the Saudi government vows to retaliate and wants the United States in it. The Houthis say the response will be "painful" if we come. And the White House is weighing.

So that's my trouble. The backing is dated the fourth. The weighing is dated today. Which of the two is the current position?

Now here's the thing a shop this careful would normally catch, and it isn't in a cable, it's in a timetable. Delta announced Atlanta to Riyadh, launched the route into that market, and then put out their own word for what became of it: postponed. Same airport. Same sky. And in this whole business, who is it that loses actual money for reading that sky wrong? What did the people in Atlanta have in front of them that the position filed on the fourth did not?

Across the street from my place a limb came down over the fellow's garage. I told him I'd hold the ladder. Said it standing in the driveway with the dog leaning on my leg, said it before I'd looked up at the limb once. Then the tree outfit came, the ones who do this for money and carry insurance on it, and they looked at the same limb, wrote something on a carbon sheet, and took the truck home, and the appointment is off the books until further notice. So now I'm the only one in that yard still standing on something I said before anybody looked up. When the professional reads the tree and drives away, does my promise get read again, or does it just sit there being nine days old?

Oh — I'm sorry, one thing, you're walking, I'll be quick. Two papers. One is the backing, dated the fourth. One is a schedule out of Atlanta. Both of them describe the same airport. Since the fourth, which one has been changed by the people who wrote it? And the one that got changed — it's got a word on it. Their word, not mine. I wrote it down. Here: postponed.