Who played who?

(This post is a follow-up on the New York Times article where Secretary of State Clinton assured President Obama that the UAE would commit its air force to the Libya no fly zone.)

As I wrote earlier, Hillary's assurances to Pres. Obama that UAE would send it's airplanes to Libya was the tipping point for the President.  Now the UAE is saying it won't send planes.

That leads to my questions of the day:  Did the UAE play Hillary and convince her they were going to send planes while they never had any intention of doing so?  Did the UAE do it because they knew that a war in Libya would distract the world from what is going on Bahrain?  Both are possible.  

But I wonder... Hillary was meeting with UAE foreign minister in Paris.  I wonder if she said something like this, "President Obama is reluctant. He might be persuaded if I could tell him that an Arab country would participate. He's a basketball fan.  If I can tell him that an Arab country has 'skin in the game' he might just go along."  

And with that Hillary received a wink, "Yes, Madam Secretary, we will support the no-fly zone."  

I'm not one for conspiracies but this sounds scarily plausible.