Guest Marty Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Using money, weapons or its oil power Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iran's back militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a senior security adviser to the Saudi government said yesterday...........Full Story News Scotsman UK, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Sounds hopeful, but I'm a little skeptical about whether it works.While the official Sudi line has been pro-U.S. for a while, it is often moderated by a vocal anti-U.S. minority led by influential clerics.The Saudis are in a rough place. They're trying to drag their country into the 21st century as a fully Westernized nation, but at the same time they're being dragged backward by people with a lot of influence. Every time they capitulate, it's like taking two steps forward and one step back, which gives people with an agenda either way to paint them as the enemy.Anyway, it's also interesting to see the differences in philosophy between two countries in similar situations.Both are running out of oil. Both know it. The Saudis try to sell what they have while it lasts in order to invest the money for the future. The Iranians are trying to stretch their oil to make it last (in part by converting domestic energy use to nuclear), banking on higher oil prices in the future.As for the whole Iran/Iraq thing, I take the easy road -- I blame the British. Just like Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, Iran and Iraq are both places where the British packed up and left a mess behind for America to clean up decades later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Don't underestimate the hate between Saud and the Persians.in part by converting domestic energy use to nuclearYou worry me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Don't underestimate the hate between Saud and the Persians.You worry me.Explain the Saudi-Persian hatred thing to me. I'm not nearly as up on Middle Eastern history as I should be.As for the nuke thing -- it only makes sense. Reduce domestic consumption and you can bring in more hard currency. I'm not saying that it's the only reason they're developing a nuclear program; just a happy coincidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmainguy Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Have no fear. The House of Saud-our "Partners in Peace"-will do whatever is nessessary to preserve their pornographic wealth and totalitarian iron grip on their subjects. Lucky for the Sauds Cheney and Bush didn't finish off Osama when they had the chance in Afghanistan. The civil war in Iraq has given them some breathing room-until Osama's thugs strike again. Maybe in Riyad this time?Then you can start worrying about how much it will cost to fill up your SUV-never mind what happens with Iran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Marty Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Its starting to look like a mini cold war, lets see who can spend each other into bankruptcy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonmacbro Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 This is turning into a nightmare before our eyes...****WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has warned Vice President Dick Cheney that Saudi Arabia would back the Sunnis if the United States pulls out of Iraq, according to a senior American official.The official said the king "read the riot act" to the vice president when the two met last month in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.The New York Times first reported the conversation Wednesday, saying Saudi support would include financial backing for minority Sunnis in the event of a civil war between them and Iraq's Shiite majority.Violence between the two sects has exploded in waves of revenge killings since February's bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra, north of Baghdad.An official with Cheney's office said the one-on-one meeting lasted two hours. The November 25 visit marked the fourth time Cheney had been to Saudi Arabia as vice president.The Saudi king told Cheney that his country would be forced to step in and support "like-minded Sunni Arabs" if the situation in Iraq fell apart and the Sunnis' safety was in jeopardy, the senior U.S. official said.The monarch said he would "intervene aggressively on one side absent an American presence," the source said.http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/13/saudi.sunnis/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonmacbro Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 missed that one. moderator might want to combine the two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 This is turning into a nightmare before our eyes...To me, it sounds like a Saudi gambit to try and keep us there so that regional stability can be ensured at no cost to them.Any war into which the Saudis entered for stated religious interests has the very strong potential to escalate into a major regional conflagration that would be extraordinarily costly for all those nations involved and that could easily result in the loss of much of the oilfield infrastructure within the Middle East. Historically, the Saudis have acted rationally and in their best economic interests. They are also prone to using hyperbole in diplomacy, espcially with respect to throwing their weight around within OPEC...but they are usually very moderate when it comes to actions. Therefore, I'd argue they will not enter a civil war even if we do pull out.Theirs is not a credible threat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 missed that one. moderator might want to combine the two?Done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidtownCoog Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 All the Middle East is wary of Iran. The Saudis are just as worried about Iran going nuclear as we are. And if the US pulls out, Iran will move in into Iraq. Persians are not Arabs. Enter the House of Saud and let the final showdown begin. Not to mention Iran already has their sights set on the holy shrines that the House of Saud protects.The Saudis have top notch military equipment thanks to the US. Iran keeps their military equipment together with duct tape thanks to sanctions.Go Saudis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryDallas Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 The thing that scares the US and all of the Arabs in power is that REAL democracy will prevail in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran ,etc...We buy the oil and either provide direct protection to the people in power or supply the money that allows them to stay in power. If all of those nations had a real revolution that was 100% internal and not triggered by an external nation like the US or Saudi Arabia in Iraq the people would execute all of their current leaders and kick all foreigners out.Americans think the oil revenues that the Arabs get benefit all of them from the rulers to the man on the street. That is simply not true except in a few nations like Saudi Arabia where a citizen of that nation by birth gets a stipened income just for being alive. In places like Iraq and Iran the average citizen gets NOTHING from the sale of oil. Besides, the Chinese are very thristy for oil. Before the US was the only one who would be able to buy all of the oil they needed to sell. If you were an Arab would you sell your oil to the Chinese who will pay for it with missiles, rockets, and possibly nuclear weapons that they bought from Russia so you could defend yourself or would you sell your oil to the US who has humiliated you for over 50 years and killed millions of your people in that time while protecting brutal thungs in their governments?The Iraq war was a lesson to the world. If you are unable to defend yourself from invasion and you cooperate with the UN you will be invaded and occupied.The war in the middle east is just a proxy war for the showdown that is coming between the US and China. Do not be fooled into thinking the trade is too great for them to risk having a war with us. Did you really think they were going to stay slaves building our Walmart junk for us forever? They just used that time to learn how to go industrial fast and have at the same time gutted the US of the industrial sector. We have now a generation of Americans that have simply lost the trade. China has already started dumping the debt it holds in US dollars and this has hurt the dollar badly in the last 2-3 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westguy Posted March 24, 2007 Share Posted March 24, 2007 I thought the Saudis were behind Wahabism and continue to reinforce it. They country may be technolgically advanced, but sociologically it is in the Stone Age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryDallas Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 I thought the Saudis were behind Wahabism and continue to reinforce it. They country may be technolgically advanced, but sociologically it is in the Stone Age.The Saudis pay protection money to their local Mullahs that run the schools in Saudi Arabia that teach radical ideology. If they did not pay the Mullahs would have declaired war on the Saud family long ago and cut their heads off. Most all of the jihadists schools in that nation are paid for to maintain the status quo. It won't last forever though. The Saudis are imbeciles to patronize those people because they will turn on them when the money runs out or when they gain enough power in numbers to topple the govt; whichever comes first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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