With America's Arab friends and allies running for cover from the Bush administration -- just last month, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia called the occupation of Iraq "illegal" -- the State Department's chief Middle East diplomat argues that, sure, we have allies:

"The president of Yemen is coming here the beginning of May; they're friends of the United States,'' David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said in an interview. "I know they're not as big as Egypt or Saudi Arabia, but it would be a little unfair to say we have a problem in the region across the board.''

Welch is right: Yemen is not as big as Egypt or Saudi Arabia.