As long as Saudi makes a bust and offers us up some small frys...We guarantee to stay off their backs
Never mind it is Saudi who is the main sponsor of Whabbii terrorism...HAMAS etc...
Our leaders refuse to hold Saudi accountable for their active support of terrorists...
So in order to keep the gravy flowing they put on a nice goat and camel show to mollify the rubes back in the USA
Kind of like the history of drug cartels in America who continue to run drugs into America...and who also offer up a small fish now and again to keep their partners happy and their place secured..
imo
Whether the protesters were Islamofascists or classical Liberals is not stated in the article. It is possible the Saudis are rounding up democrats, and passing it off as a crackdown on Islamofascists.
At least the "journalist" could have determined who was being repressed.
When your foreign policy essentially amounts to herding snakes, your primary interest is in keeping your herds moving away from you. You can't hesitate to take ruthless measures when they start looking over their shoulder in your direction. The Saudi royals have been wedded to the Wahabs for two hundred years. Their legitimacy rests upon that foundation, which means that they can neither abandon them without being devoured by them, but they must keep feeding them and keep pointing their rage outward. At any moment the rage that they have inculcated in their people must collapse back in on them and all will be lost.
Consequently any political opening may have the tendency to give vent to this rage. Thats bad.
But its still the best way forward. Factions within the Royal family will form the basis of political parties. The parties who are out of power will in true Wahab fashion be radicalized but the party in power will always be forced to respond to reality, which tends to blunt radicalism. Right now you have only a handful of Royals who are forced to engage reality but in a parliamentary system you have a national debate that, on a good day, brings more people into the discussion and forces more people to deal with the actual world. This could put power into the hands of the psychotics but it tends to reign in the psychosis.
The royals threaten us by our fear of what comes when the real Wahabs take over the country. But the Sauds are the ones who grow the real Wahabs. That makes the Sauds our salvation from a threat that they themselves create.
Without ignoring the dangers, we should call the bluff and push for an end to the present regime. No fear. Just do it.