Posted on 01/18/2002 5:13:23 PM PST by StopDemocratsDotCom
Excerpt:
Both the White House and the US state department insisted yesterday that the military arrangement between the two countries was still working. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that the president, George Bush, "believes that our presence in the region has a very helpful and stabilising effect in a dangerous region".
Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally, have been severely strained since September 11. Both sides have been desperately denying for months that there is a rift.
The US is reluctant to withdraw its 4,500 troops from the Prince Sultan air base, south of Saudi's capital Riyadh, because it could be perceived as a propaganda victory for Osama bin Laden, who frequently protested at the presence of non-believers so close to the main Muslim holy sites.
But the increasingly brittle and vulnerable ruling House of Saud is nervous about an internal revolt by Bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network and other extremist militants, and has been publicly loosening its links with Washington.
The huge Prince Sultan air base played a crucial logistical role in the bombing of Afghanistan. Withdrawal would upset the military balance in the Middle East by providing a boost to the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. US planes based in Saudi regularly bomb along the Iraqi border as part of its policy of containment of Saddam.
Its a pity that it takes an(other) incident like this which will disrupt the war on terrorist to make the USA re-evaluate their so-called friends & allies in that region.
And it's a headline from an anti-American newspaper.
The Saudis haven't told us to leave, and I would be somewhat surprised if they do. It is definitely causing a problem for them, but it pales in comparison to the problem the Royal family will face if the clerics lead an Islamic Fundamentalist revolution.
Maybe not such a bad idea (let's also remove the sanctions as well). While I seriously doubt that Iraq poses a threat to Saudi Arabia -- we've sold them such hi-tech weapons over the years that they could seriously kick Iraq's butt (and quite possibly our own as well) -- the common people of Saudi Arabia would probably be a whole lot freer under the rule of Saddam then the current regime of kings. Oppressive monarchy (Saudis) vs. progressive dictatorship (Saddam). Now, the people of Saudi Arabia might very well resent foreign occupation, but that's the whole point. Of course we might never know for sure unless we were to allow things to take their own course, without the world's only superpower constantly meddling in the course of what are the affairs of other countries.
I like it!
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