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SAUDIS TELL U.S. FORCES TO GET OUT
The Guardian ^ | 01-18-02 | The Guardian

Posted on 01/18/2002 5:13:23 PM PST by StopDemocratsDotCom

Saudis tell US forces to get out ;Foreign soldiers seen as political liability

Saudi Arabia's rulers are poised to throw US strategy in the Middle East into disarray by asking Washington to pull its forces out of the kingdom because they have become a "political liability". Senior Saudi officials have privately complained that the US has "outstayed its welcome" and that the kingdom may soon request that the American presence - a product of the Gulf war - is brought to an end.

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.

Britain, which jointly patrols the Iraqi no-fly zone with the US, has planes based both in Saudi and Kuwait. A pull-out by Washington would switch the focus to the British air base in Kuwait, whose leaders try to avoid drawing attention to the British presence.

Two senior US state department officials have been in Saudi this week: William Burns, the assistant secretary for the near east, and Lincoln Bloomfield, the assistant secretary for political and military affairs.

The US state department insisted yesterday that at no point during Mr Bloomfield's visit, either formally or informally, had the Saudis said they wanted the US to leave.

But the US ambassador to Saudi, Robert Jordan, was quoted as saying when Mr Bloomfield arrived in the kingdom: "He is here for consultations with the Saudi government to review our presence here and to discuss what we need and what we don't need."

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, who is in Nepal, denied the Saudis wanted a withdrawal: "There has been no discussion of such an issue."

Many in the US have been upset with Saudi because not only is it Bin Laden's native country but 15 of the 19 terrorists involved in the September 11 attacks were from the kingdom. The Saudi media have reported that about 200 Saudis have been captured in Afghanistan fighting with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The kingdom is volatile, with a stagnant economy, high unemployment, no democratic outlets and King Fahd unable to crack down on militant clerics.

Hostility to the US is widespread but that is mirrored in the US where there is a huge well of resentment that, having fought to push back Iraq in 1991 and having protected Saudi since, Riyadh refused to provide military help during the Afghan campaign.

Reflecting this, Carl Levin, who heads the US Senate armed services committee, said: "We need a base in that region, but it seems to me we should find a place that is more hospitable."

Bin Laden listed as the main justifications for the attacks on New York and Washington the presence of the US soldiers in the kingdom, US support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians, and the US campaign against Iraq. He said six years ago: "There is no more important duty than pushing the American enemy out of the holy land [of Arabia]."

The US could continue its containment of Iraq from aircraft carriers based in the Gulf. But the US air force secretary, James Roche, said a pull-out would make life awkward: "It would be difficult, unless we could replicate the air operations centre somewhere else."


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: saudiarabia
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
How about annexing North and South Saudolina?
61 posted on 01/18/2002 5:59:38 PM PST by Calpublican
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
This is a bogus headline. Saudi probably is considering it, though. When we're done with a few other countries, we should come back and kick their butts. I'd like to see King Fahd -- actually King Fraud -- get a Tomahawk missile right up his backside.
62 posted on 01/18/2002 6:00:49 PM PST by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
Of corse thay do. That is were the al quaida is based and most likely were bin laden is hidding.
63 posted on 01/18/2002 6:00:50 PM PST by RMrattlesnake
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Comment #64 Removed by Moderator

To: LibKill
I don't think the Guardian is a reliable source of anything except anti-America propaganda.

Actually, they're not even reliable at that. Their statement:

the American presence - a product of the Gulf war

is incorrect. There has been an American presence there since 1946.

65 posted on 01/18/2002 6:04:17 PM PST by M. Thatcher
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Comment #66 Removed by Moderator

To: shattered
"...the people of Saudi Arabia stand in friendship with the United States".

I wonder how many such ads have been seen in Saudi Arabia during this timeframe, or ever, for that matter.

On September 11 the Saudis showed clearly enought that they are not really our friends. Let's make the fuel cell the kind of important project that John Kennedy made of the space program. "By the end of this decade..."

67 posted on 01/18/2002 6:05:40 PM PST by Tea42
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
I think it's stupid of the Muslims to feel so threatened and insecure that they won't let "infidels" enter Mecca or Medina nor do they want us in Saudi, nor even the Middle East. Riyadh, Bagdad, Tehran, Jeddah, all other places in the world but Mecca and Medina are not truthfully holy ground to their religion. They're just like greedy little kids and they need to grow up.

Their position on this matter is absolutely ridiculous and what they REALLY want is for there to be no "infidels" on earth and that is their version of Islam's true goal and want.

I can't tell you how white hot angry their stupid childish position makes me everytime I hear it.

I really think that to stop their nonsense we'll one day have to go in and either take over Mecca and Medina and open up those towns to the people of the world or else bomb them back to glassy desert sand.

They also need to learn to base their God and religion on the truth for once instead of on their wet dreams and envious hatred.

They seem to be anal retentive and anal compulsive as well as being retromigent reactionaries.

*spits to the side* Worthless, childish animals is all they are now.

P.S. The above is for all Muslims except for the good Muslims, you know who you are (paraphrasing Mark Twain).

68 posted on 01/18/2002 6:09:44 PM PST by chantal7
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
This is breaking news? Dude the world's been talking about this for at least TWO days.
69 posted on 01/18/2002 6:12:14 PM PST by VA Advogado
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To: RightOnline
With all that said, it wouldn't break my heart one little bit to tell them to "respectfully, f**k off" and pull out en masse. Then, we watch 'em fall to internal forces or Hussein or........whoever. THEN, we come back in and clean house and take over that freakin' lake of oil that they're floating atop.

Exactly my thoughts.

70 posted on 01/18/2002 6:13:46 PM PST by demsux
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To: D Joyce
Actually, if you beleive in what the Bible says, our support for Israel has been a scource of blessing to our country for a long time and,

IMO, the main reason we are as prosporous as we are today.

71 posted on 01/18/2002 6:17:34 PM PST by DainBramage
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To: D Joyce
"We don't owe them a thing. They have been nothing but a thorn in our butts since 47."

Speak for yourself, bubba.

72 posted on 01/18/2002 6:18:10 PM PST by RightOnline
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
No.....we like your bases just fine. Deal with it!

73 posted on 01/18/2002 6:18:18 PM PST by VaBthang4
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
funny. a US withdrawl from saudi is one of OBL's stated goals.
74 posted on 01/18/2002 6:18:26 PM PST by gfactor
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
--wild card. India and pakistan conflict is still on the table at the 50/50 level. china is pushing for the islamics at this point, for their own purposes. china is also the up and coming world petroleum market of note, not quite the us level yet, but within ten years or so. Saudi sells oil for a living. Fatcat saudis like their jobs. they need to sell more oil, plus have a country will sell them anything military they got the cash for without getting "approval' from some foreign congress. their dude in the street there has no use for the US or the west in general anymore, except as a consumer target that is increasingly going elsewhere for oil. Russia has just announced they will be competing with saudis in the market, and sell to the west. What to do if you are a saudi fatcat? One answer is to gradually sever ties with the west and concentrate on china and the other islamic nations, and let japan in on it as well, if they will play ball and stay neutral. I'm guessing they will kill 4 birds with one stone, so this article might be right on. Their only gamble is maybe with iraq, but they will use iran to play them off with. And if they cut ties to the US more, even completely, then what's to stop them getting their own nukes, now that pakistan has them, and china and north korea is willing to sell? With nukes and missiles, which they could afford easily, they might consider themselves strong enough to remain stable and intact, without any US presence, plus, they can score a lot more brownie points in the islamic world by being even more anti israel that they are now, and the fatcats will still retain the option of bugging out if they have to. Cash (and gold of which they have literally tons) still walks on this planet.
75 posted on 01/18/2002 6:19:51 PM PST by zog
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
As I said, we should give them what they want.

Let us pull out. Leave smoking rubble where "our" base was.

Send a note to Saddam Hussein that we will not lift a finger to save the Saudis, should he happen to invade.

Maybe build a 4-lane highway to the border with Iraq.

--Boris

76 posted on 01/18/2002 6:22:54 PM PST by boris
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
Our small garrison is Saudi Arabia is mixed with the incompetent but more numerous Saudi forces if we don't have that token garrison there we don't have to worry about them being used as human shields when and( and I hope we do) if we invade the magic kingdom.
77 posted on 01/18/2002 6:24:11 PM PST by weikel
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
Freepers I want some reaction to this. I don't know what to make of this.

It's the Guardian, an ultra-leftist newspaper.

78 posted on 01/18/2002 6:26:25 PM PST by tallhappy
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To: Gladwin
The Saudi are our enemies, and the US shouldn't have a base there.

Sure we should. We've paid fifty times what their freakin' oil is worth. The rest belongs to us.

It's time to pitch the sand diggers out in their just desserts. Anybody want to screw with us? Face the consequences.

79 posted on 01/18/2002 6:27:27 PM PST by stboz
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To: StopDemocratsDotCom
Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally, have been severely strained since September 11

Now why would this be? Wouldn't the death of thousands of men, women and children by terrorists engender great sympathy and a single purpose to destroy this kind of terrorism? Not if you believe the Saudis are funding the Pan Arab Islamic agenda including the Jihad.

80 posted on 01/18/2002 6:28:33 PM PST by Lent
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