A dispatch in yesterday’s Washington Times and a recent paper from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy raise the alarum that Saudi Arabia is working to obtain nuclear technology from Pakistan to build an atomic bomb. The threat of nuclear weapons in the hands of the nation that spawned 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers and that funds terrorism against Israel is ominous enough. But just as troubling is what it says about the message being sent by the Bush administration’s gentle treatment of Iran and North Korea.

Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which didn’t have nuclear weapons, was the subject of a war to force regime change. Kim Jong Il’s North Korea, which does have nuclear weapons, is, on the other hand, the recipient of President Bush’s promises not to invade. “A treaty is not going to happen, but there are other ways to affect, on paper, what I have said publicly — we have no intention of invading,” Mr. Bush said yesterday. So what’s the lesson for a terror-sponsoring repressive state with any wits about it? Obviously, get yourself a nuclear weapon and your chances of getting invaded by America decline precipitously.

With respect to Iran, which is an Axis nation and is also seeking the bomb, Mr. Bush’s strategy is also a diplomatic one. He said yesterday, “Our relations with Iran — that will help relations with Iran, obviously, if they do abandon a nuclear weapons program. It will also help if they — we end up doing a — reaching an agreement on Al Qaeda that they hold.”This is an illuminating statement indeed. The fact that Iraq was harboring Al Qaeda was one cause, if only one, for America to invade Iraq. Yet when it comes to Al Qaeda in Iran, America is apparently, according to the president, engaged in an effort that involves “reaching an agreement.”

It would be interesting to see Mr. Bush explain what might be involved in such an agreement. Back in September, 2001, Mr. Bush demanded that the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan turn over Al Qaeda to America. “These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion,” Mr. Bush said to applause from a joint session of Congress. “The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate.” As they did a few weeks later when America used military force to change the regime in Afghanistan.

What a distance Mr. Bush has come, to the point where he is now speaking of “reaching an agreement” with another regime that is harboring Al Qaeda. It’s hard not to conclude that the Saudis are watching closely.