[BuckeyeOhio]

If we have to leave Saudi Arabia, I say we go - BUT take absolutely everything with us. Don't leave a thing behind that we built. And if we can take it, blow it up. Maybe Afganistan would appreciate our "junk".

[1 FELLOW FREEPER]

NO PROBLEM! JUST AS SOON AS WE TAKE BACK OUR OIL WELLS.

[willyboyishere]

This only makes sense from the Saudis if it's intended for internal public consumption: "we want the Americans out, just like you, al-Qaeda, but they just won't leave. Continue taking it out on them, not us." I wish we would get out and leave that whole part of the world to the obscurity it so richly deserves. That will kick one prop at least out from underneath the terrorist's premise. Then there's still Israel and the Palestinians, which is where all the superheated focus is going these days anyway.

[aruanan]

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".

Okay, tiny little Saudi royal family who'll never be able to defend your asses. We'll get out. We'll let you get run over and your entire "monarchy" destroyed and then come back to pick up the pieces. Maybe some of you who make it out alive can actually learn how to work to make money instead of just pumping it out of the ground.

[boycott]

I say we leave and let it be known that we won't protect their coward thug a$$es under any conditions.

[Newbomb Turk]

We need to leave. We are proping up a KING. Left to there own devices they royal family will soon fall. We stand for Democracy and Freedom. Both are lacking in Saudi Arabia. Maybe we should arm the common man in saudi and see how long the Royals last.

[scottinoc]

fine, just curious though, who's going to buy your oil

[brat]

It's their funeral! Any bets on how long the wealthy, corrupt Fahd family lasts in power once we're gone???

[Uncle Miltie]

Let Iraq have them. It will spread the Iraqi troops out across even more indefensible terrain. Then, we can liberate the bunch, administer it as a protectorate (a la Japan, 1946+), and hold elections. Imagine, actual elections in an Arab country. That will freak the Royal Family more than Sadam at the gates....

[rockfish59]

wussa madda?? poor babies mad that we may buy russian & mexican oil instead?
suck our exhaust ya' ungrateful flea bags!

[PoorMuttly]

Couldn't handle reading beyond title and first paragraph. 5:32am now...but I bet I couldn't do it at high noon either.

Liquid Hyrogen fuel, and all it's brothers and sisters, seems to be the trump card in all this sort of Arab unpleasantness...and I say we launch it on 'em...and sober 'em up real good...real fast.

[MeekOneGOP]

SAUDIS TELL U.S. FORCES TO GET OUT

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.

---

I'm sure Bush-bashers will scoff at this, but he'll come through in a pinch. . .
(((PING))))))
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[prophetic]

Isreal was and has ALWAYS been America's best friend & ally in the middle east.

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.

[Dog Gone]

I am just amazed at the number of people who assume the headline is correct, even when the story does not come close to justifying it.

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.

[irish guard]

A M F Saudi Arabia!