Richard Cheney was in Dubai on Saturday. There were no big rallies, although the AP calls the tiny emirate "this tightly controlled U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf." It's also a Sunni state, and it has the largest population of all the emirates at 1.4 million with a 3:1 ratio men over women. But, of the 1.4 million people, only 17% are natives, not just from Dubai itself, but from all the other mini-states, really mini-states, in the U.A.E. I have posted about Dubai several times. Also, when there was a huge multi-page advertisement in the New York Times Magazine (as there was this weekend from Sharjah, an emirate -- sorry -- of which I'd never heard) and when Tom Friedman would tell us that Dubai, a thrilling country, is a pillar of the Western defense. Good luck. Maybe Cheney fixed something early this weekend. But on Sunday Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also came to town, and he was received, according to an AP report on the New York Times web-site, with an enormous and "raucous anti-American rally." Why, aside from the fact that Dubai is Sunni, is this surprising? Because this is "a country where political parties are banned and power is held solely by tribal families." Cheney's visit "was part of a tour of the region to try to curb Iran's growing influence." Mission accomplished? Sunni royalty in the region are scared to death by Shi'a Iran's nuclear program. How did Ahmadinejad manage his big fest? How did he and his supporters ever get permission for him to address a large crowd? For him to speak at all? For him even to come? And the day after Cheney, no less? Among the words that the Iranian president deployed: "Every time your name is mentioned, hatred builds up," he said addressing the U.S. He also told the crowd, "God bless you for loving Iran so dearly." It's true there were expatriate Iranians in the crowd. Yes, I do wonder what Tom makes of all this. But I doubt he'll get back to Dubai in his column any time soon.