Nigeria, Nov. 11 -- Presumptions of friendship and guarantees in international relations are never secure and rarely lasting. Even when they are given the stamp of firm endurance, a closer look will find greater benefits accruing to one party over the other. When one needs to persuade a weaker power into surrendering real estate and valuable terrain for the more powerful counterpart to use, always employ the terminology of "joint-facility", "joint-operations" or some such. That will go a long way into validating the mendacity of an arrangement.

The Gulf Arab states are the latest to learn this lesson from the United States, whose guardianship credentials have been looking particularly shabby of late. Having not sought the conflict with ...