Posted on 01/29/2002 2:21:37 PM PST by vannrox
Obviously, a lot is going on behind the scenes. The Saudi's have not done all we wanted in the war on terror, and we are applying pressure to change that. We raised the stakes when we publicly changed the off-base attire rules for female members of the military.
I do not know what the behind the scenes response was, but this could easily be the public portion of the Saudi response to our demands.
If so, they are sending us the message that either we back off, or they will demand we withdraw. In other words, they are laying the foundation to call our bluff.
If we are bluffing, we will back down and keep our base (for now, anyway). If we do not back down (i.e., we are not bluffing), the Saudis will either back down, or ask us to leave. (I do not think we would stay after being publicly told to leave.)
I am confident that we are not bluffing. Therefore, the Saudis have a decision to make: back down, or ask us to leave. Given the internal situation in Saudi Arabia, my bet is that they ask us to leave.
We live in interesting times (which is, BTW, an ancient Chinese curse...).
These guys shouldn't be on the top of our friend list they should be on the top of our sh** list
Sure seems like a target rich environment doesn't it?
Hmmmmm ..... we do have the technology. You might be onto something mercy. Track those bad boys just like the animals they are. Maybe need to get some scientests w/ those cool tranquilizer guns and experience in tagging wolves or polar bears:)
That seems to be increasingly likely, based only on what we know. I agree, there is much going on behind the scenes that we can only guess at.
If they ask us to leave, they will be caving to their religious clerics and the fundamentalist movement. That could buy them some short-term political gain at home, but it will only make things worse for them in the long run. The clerics will soon be powerful enough that they can simply tell the royal family to leave. Or else.
I still think the Saudis are trying to walk the tightrope of trying to appease the fundamentalists while keeping a western presence for their own protection. There's no guarantee that approach would work in the long run, either.
The only strategy that might work for the royal family would be to apply pressure to the clerics and try to dampen their influence in the country. Whether that's even possible, I don't know.
The House of Saud had better enjoy itself today, because it will take a political miracle to keep it power for another 25 years.
So true, the House of Saud has no friends left. The Saudis themselves hate them, Iraq of course hates them, and they are telling us to kiss off too. Don't know maybe they have a death wish? If so its looking like their wish may just come true..
This isn't breaking news either- the story was out yesterday, and known before then. They DON'T want them 'released'... they want them turned over so they can have a crack with them. More likely they want to separate a few heads from a few bodies... or even more likely, since they aren't talking quite as much as we would like, we may want to take them over to a country where some more intensive questions can be asked and where we would get answers. What better way than to 'repatriate' them to a country where there isn't a bunch of bleeding hearts wringing their hands over the sogginess of froot loops and the breeziness of the kennels?
Most of the family has no responsibilities, just the ability to spend millions of dollars a year on whatever they choose. It absolutely fosters irresponsibility and an arrogance that is hardly endearing.
Saddam Hussein has a far more effective form a government. Absolute power vested in a single despot. Saudi Arabia has a dysfunctional family running a country sitting atop vast riches, where no one person calls the shots, and in a country where powerful political forces, the clerics, control the masses.
All it would take is for a conspiracy of the clerics to suddenly declare that the royal family has committed an affront to Islam, for the entire bunch to be flushed. Perhaps the Saudi army would protect them. Perhaps it wouldn't.
Either way, it's a tenuous hold on power and it can't last forever in a modern world.
Why not? Return them... in body bags.
Seriously, how long are we going to put up with these backward neanderthals?
I suppose we will have to REALLY find an alternaternative to fossil fuels so that the camel jocks are left holding buggywhips instead of the natural resource we continue to depend on!!!
Buy from Dalmier, help Chrysler. Buy Opal, help Ford.
It's Daimler, and it's Opel. And Opel belongs to General Motors, not to Ford.
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