Posted on 01/05/2016 3:42:53 AM PST by Timber Rattler
The Obama administration on Monday confronted the fundamental contradiction in its increasingly tense relationship with Saudi Arabia. It could not bring itself, at least in public, to condemn the execution of a dissident cleric who challenged the royal family, for fear of undermining the fragile Saudi leadership that it desperately needs in fighting the Islamic State and ending the conflict in Syria.
The United States has usually looked the other way or issued carefully calibrated warnings in human rights reports as the Saudi royal family cracked down on dissent and free speech and allowed its elite to fund Islamic extremists. In return, Saudi Arabia became America’s most dependable filling station, a regular supplier of intelligence, and a valuable counterweight to Iran.
For years it was oil that provided the glue for a relationship between two nations that share few common values.
Today, with American oil production surging and the Saudi leadership fractured, the mutual dependency that goes back to the early 1930s, with the first American investment in the kingdom’s oil fields, no longer binds the nations as it once did.
But the political upheaval in the Middle East and the American perception that the Saudis are critical to stability in the region continue to hold together an increasingly fractious marriage. So when Saudi Arabia executed 47 people, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, the dissident cleric, on Saturday, beheading many of them in a style that most Americans associate with the Islamic State rather than a close American partner, the administration’s efforts to explain the relationship became more strained than ever.
In fact, the executions were the culmination of a series of events in the past few years that have led to clashes between the two nations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Me too. But it is as much in Saudi Arabia’s interests as ours, even more theirs, just as the wars with Sadam were. SO THERE SHOULD BE PAYBACK FROM THE HOUSE OF SAUD. Tolerance of other religions and political dissent, equal treatment for women and THE END of brural Sharia punishment MUST APBE the requirement of OURS to helping THEM. That is the only way to break the back of Wahhabi tyranny.
to the old gray whore, capital punishment carries a greater weight than national security. there is no justification for capital punishment, even the very life of the nation
I have only two questions about a Saudi-Iranian conflict.
1. How much popcorn will I need ?
2. What’s the best beer to watch this with ?
Bingo.
And that’s one thing the Saudis will NEVER do. The House of Saud cut a deal with the Wahabbi’s to come to power, way back when, and now the results of that are coming home to roost.
Plus, the Oil Bust is eating seriously into their revenue, and, suddenly, they’re running out of Other People’s Money to keep their people docile. . .
Agree. But I wonder if this article is being pushed by Obama to remove support from Saudi Arabia and give support to Iran.
“It makes more sense when you just determine that the U.S. government has been bought and infiltrated by foreign governments for years.”
Follow the money and follow Soros. Where there is the possibility for economic ruin, Soros is usually there shorting the market.
What’s new? Plenty of Americans have died helping the Saudis in Iraq in three separate wars.
We need them to be ended and disposed of. If the sectarian violence and hopefully all out total war between two enemies of the West is to be...the only question is: how to we hasten their demise and where do you want the weapons dropped?
We need nothing from the Islamic world except for their quick exit from this good earth.
Anything else is just one-worlder/global socialist/neo-con B.S. for someones portfolio.
The world just needs them all to depart.
The quicker...the better.
Are you having a problem with your manners?
just wondering to myself ... how close are the saudis to getting their own nukes?
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