The map is sobering. To Saudi Arabia's north are Jordan, Syria and Iraq -- stable only for the moment, and across the Persian Gulf to the east is Iran itself. The tiny and weak Gulf emirates are along Saudi Arabia's eastern coast, and on its southern border boils the seething population of Yemen. And for good measure, Egypt and Sudan sit just across the Red Sea to the west.
Saudi Arabia is surrounded, and its peaceful days appear to be numbered. Iran is busy ushering the return of the Mahdi...
True. We know the Iranian leadership feels chaos is required to hasten the Mahdi’s return. It wouldn’t be surprising if they used the “defense of their Shia brothers” as an excuse to cause trouble. I can’t imagine what oil prices would be if Iran and Saudi Arabia clashed.
Sure looks that way...
Not only that, but Bahrain is home to the primary US Naval base in the Persian Gulf. Denying use of those facilities to the US Navy would be a major strategic coup for Iran.
I’m not sure if we have the wherewithal to maintain NSA Bahrain in Guantanamo-like isolation should a hostile regime take control. Even if we could, its strategic value would probably be greatly diminished, due to the increased logistical burden of maintaining it, the need to be prepared to defend it from land attack at any time, and the number of hostile eyes on the base that can report movements to Iran (which I’d bet has always been a problem).
Your comment is the first one I can remember seeing that has hit on this issue and I've been keeping an eye out in the news and such for any such mention. That was one of the first things I thought when the media started inferring that Iran's influences could be behind all these "Days of Rage" protests in Tunesia, Egypt, Libya, et.al. I've yet to see an article that has tried to advance this position.
There were many articles in recent year's past quoting Ahmadenijad admitting that he saw his role being to create chaos to hasten the appearance of their "al-Mahdi", yet, now when all indications point to subversive influences causing these riots having possible Iranian ties, no one in the media is willing to raise the issue publically as to whether this is all happening according to Ahmadenijad's plan.
If the Saudis were smart, they would stop exporting money for fundamentalist madrassahs, stop supporting radical clerics, and use the money to beef up their armed forces.