Brilliant.
flag for later with thanks to Pokey for the full post...
Dead on, as usual.
bump.
We should have seized the oil fields long ago and let these drones go to work for a living
Well, that's the Kerry Plan...and since we can already see that it's not working in practice in Saudi Arabia, why would anyone support a Presidential candidate who advocates it?
Let the jihadis have the KSA. At some point they are going to have to govern and make policy decisions. With all the westerners (and assorted other infidels) gone they will not be able to keep the oil flowing and the local economy will fall apart. The gulf emirates will move even closer to the U.S. and some of the governments in the region who are not now friendly towards us (Egypt for instance) will likely move closer to us as they are unlikely to want their citizens getting any crazy ideas about revolution when they go on a haj. Right now the Saudi princelings are not our friends; I find it hard to imagine that we will be worse off with avowed enemies in charge as opposed to enemies who pretend to be our friends.
Mark Steyn is brilliant:
And, given that its the Saudi government that funds all the madrasahs that form the ideological backbone of Islamist terrorism, is there any point in pretending that the House of Saud and al-Qaeda are on opposite sides rather than twin manifestations of the same problem? The West backs the Saudi regime as a bulwark against local destabilisation, in return for which they underwrite destabilisation of the West across the entire planet.
That was the lesson of the Nineties: you try to fight a war defensively, you lose. You send the FBI in to look over Khobar Towers as a crime scene, and Prince Nayef obstructs your investigators. You try to lob a couple of cruise missiles at Osama in Afghanistan, and Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence picks them up on the radar and tips him off. Thats the world John Kerry wants to return to. Theres no reason for Bush to join him there. Its not possible to manage Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Syria and a myriad of smaller problems indefinitely. So manage the smaller problems and, when it comes to the biggest ones, confront them and fix them.
What exactly is realist about continuing to back the Frankensaud monster? The present policy is all but certain to wind up delivering the peninsula and its oil into the hands of Osamas buddies. In one sense, the war on terror is a Saudi civil war which the Saudis cunningly exported to the rest of the world. The trick now is to gift-wrap it and send it back home marked for the attention of Prince Nayef. Given the inevitability of disaster if we stick to a failed containment strategy, how could things be any worse if we went in for some creative disruption? At the very minimum, Washington needs to have solid, detailed contingency plans for securing the oil fields, and making sure the Hashemites are on stand-by to return to Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia cant be saved, and the more we postpone reaching that conclusion and acting on it, the messier its going to be. Whoever youre backing in November, the quiet life isnt on the ballot.
At least until November 15th, 2004. Then we pick up the next thread and Yank it.
Steyn bump
I nominate this as the idea of the week.
What exactly is realist about continuing to back the Frankensaud monster? The present policy is all but certain to wind up delivering the peninsula and its oil into the hands of Osamas buddies.
Is there any way we can get Steyn to be Secretary of State? Any way?
Interesting.
Finally, Henry Kissinger, the "man without a patriotism," is getting his due. Recall that it was K who inspired the "opening" to Red China, and strenuously advocates ignoring the mass murders of the regnant PRC slime...
Dustbin next, please???
Ping
Yeah, I think I could support that. It's high time our secret enemies are brought out in the open. It's time to end the B. S.
bump!