The Saudi War on George Bush

The American Thinker ^ | March 10, 2004 | Ed Lasky

[Helms]

Big Bump!

[Little Ray]

If you launched a media blitz that emphasized
1. 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis
2. Saudi support for some of those hijackers
3. Saudi attempts at manipulating economy and elections
4. The hate preached by the Saudi state relgion against the US

you might stir up a little justifiable racism. While the euroweenies might scream, Americans (the only folks who matter...) might buy it.

Personally, I'd rather buy oil from Russia and boost their economy, though. Do they have enough to sell it to us?

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

Might it also make sense to stop commuting in all those 16 MPG SUVs? Might the populatiry of these vehicles be increasing the demand side of the equation, just as usage from China and India also are pushing up demand?

[Mudboy Slim]

"Iraq could produce as much oil as Saudi Arabia."

Is that actually true?! I was under the impression that one of the reasons Hussein went into Kuwait was because Iraq's reserves were relatively paltry in comparison to some of her neighbors.

FReegards...MUD

[marron]

The article points out something that hasn't been obvious to everyone, I periodically hear people calling for us to declare war on the Saudis. In effect, we did that right after 9/11. Its just no one here noticed, but you can bet the Saudis noticed.

Until 9/11 Al Qaeda was in effect a Saudi operation, tolerated by both the US and funded by the Saudis. Every insurgency from the Balkans across Asia to the Philippines has had Saudi funding, and had its members trained in Bin Ladin's camps. This is why neither Clinton nor Riyadh wanted to arrest Bin Ladin when he was offered by Sudan.

Clinton's policy was to slap at Bin Ladin if he went off the reservation and attacked US assets, but otherwise to leave him alone.

This policy originally arose out of the anti-soviet strategy of using muslim insurgents to dismantle the Soviet Union, but due to a lot of reasons the policy took on a life of its own after the Soviet Union collapsed. Not least among them is that generations of American public servants have had their retirement portfolio secured by Saudi investments that don't necessarily show up on any IRS form.

Bush Junior shifted gears almost from the time he came into office and embraced Putin and Putin's war against the Chechens, another Saudi subsidiary operation. After 9/11, though, GW has attacked Saudi operations one after another, overturning the Taliban and Bin Ladin and seizing Afghanistan from them, training forces in every one of the Central Asian republics to go after local Al Qaeda afiliates, attacking Abu Sayaf in the Philippines, going into Yemen and Somalia after them. Between Putin and GW, its been a bad couple of years for Saudi trigger pullers.

With the overthrow of Saddam, Bush has freed the US from its reliance on Saudi territory, and we've withdrawn our forces from there. That is an element of the invasion of Iraq few have noticed; during the nineties we were trapped by our need for Saudi cooperation so we could defend those same Saudis from Saddam. This has overshadowed our whole middle east policy for over a decade. By taking Baghdad, Bush has cut that knot and freed us from Riyadh, and Riyadh is feeling the cold wind blowing.

You will not see an open war unless you pay attention, because the ties between us are too complicated. Remember the list of 270 names found in Baghdad, listing those who had received bribes from Iraq, and know that whatever Iraq had in its files is nothing compared to what the Saudis have in theirs. So as wars go this one is going to be fought out very smoothly, through PR firms, through the political process as candidates position themselves for Saudi campaign money, and in the shadows where trigger pullers meet their end. It will be the weirdest war ever fought, no one will notice it, and it will end with Bush gone, or the Sauds overthrown.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Personally, I'd rather buy oil from Russia and boost their economy, though. Do they have enough to sell it to us?"

I'm not sure how much Russia can ratchet up production in the short-term, but with oil at over $30/barrel, you'd think a lot of folks would be gearing up production as much as they could. Sure do wish we were doing a better job in utilizing our American reserves.

FReegards...MUD

[Dane]

Is that actually true?! I was under the impression that one of the reasons Hussein went into Kuwait was because Iraq's reserves were relatively paltry in comparison to some of her neighbors

Iraq has the second largest reserve of oil in the world and a good infratructure could have them producing up to 7-9 million barrels a day, I beleive.

The reason saddam went into Kuwait and then into Saudi Arabia was to corenr the oil market. Saddam used the paltry reserve as an excuse to invade Kuwait.

[philosofy123]

The Saudis were responsible for 9/11, and yet Bush II let them off the hook. He let a plain load of their citizens; including Bin Laden relatives leave the US, as our citizens were not allowed to fly. The first bombs should have been on this filthy desert barbarian regime. Bush failed us by focusing on Iraq instead of focusing on Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Iraq has the second largest reserve of oil in the world and a good infratructure could have them producing up to 7-9 million barrels a day..."

Good to know...wonder how progress is going in rebuilding Iraq's oil-producing infrastructure so that we can start seeing Iraq provide a counter-balance to the Saudi's mischief-making?

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Bush failed us by focusing on Iraq instead of focusing on Saudi Arabia, and Iran."

I disagree...we are making progress in both Saudi Arabia and Iran simply by creating a MidEast beachhead in Iraq. We had an immediate justification for going into Iraq based on Soddom's flouting of the UN. Saudi Arabia and Iran, however, will be addressed with a more nuanced approach, wherein we subtly encourage the growing freedom forces to flourish and hopefully overthrow their despotic rulers. Even with the well-established Saudi link to 9/11, we wouldda had a hard time justifying an Iraqi-like invasion of that country, imho.

FReegards...MUD

[Edmund Burke]

Why is the US allowing Iraq to remain a member of the OPEC cartel?

[Dane]

Why is the US allowing Iraq to remain a member of the OPEC cartel?

Have no idea. Although Iraq is exempt from Opec quotas at the current time.

JMO, but once Iraq can pump more oil they are going to try to sell as much as possible to bolster their economy.

[swarthyguy]

Overall I agree but it will all be for naught if the Saudi oil weapon reaches high gear this summer and gas prices go throough the roof.

Between jobs and gas, there is serious trouble brewing.

So far, the Saudi issue has not been raised in the campaign. The complexities of the Bush strategy could make it simple to demagogue the issue.

[philosofy123]

Even with the well-established Saudi link to 9/11, we wouldda had a hard time justifying an Iraqi-like invasion of that country, imho.

I disagree. First we had forces in and around Saudi Arabia, second, we trained the Saudi military, and could have counted on them to back us against their rulers, and third, the rest of the world was in chock as to the extent of the World Trade Center tragedy, and the Saudi citizens Jihadists, to the extent that most European intelligentsia say they would have backed us.

The fact that we did not invade Saudi Arabia instead of Iraq remains because of well connected people in Washington still are on the Saudi payroll, and provide lobbying, and public relation for them. Saddam was a wounded dog, and easy to kick around at will.

The real source of Islamic terrorism is fanatic Islam as it is being spewed by Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Actually, even Moslem nations were very much aware that the Saudis were behind that attack on America. In addition, the Saudi royal family are not admired anywhere, so taking them on would have been simpler than the so called experts may have thought.

[swarthyguy]

BUMP. NO BS reasons for protecting Saudi allowed.

It's only about money and the DC gravy train.

Are we scared of the Saudi army?

Bush's saving grace on this one is that the Saudis spread their largesse in a bipartisan fashion making sure that very few people ever call them for 9.11.

[philosofy123]

Thanks for seeing the truth. Take the ragheads down, and replace them with moderate ragheads.

Speaking of ragheads, what is it with God and hair? Why does God creats our hair, and turn back and orders us to cover it. Jews do, Moslems do, and even old fashion Christians do. Whats with that?

[swarthyguy]

God is bald?

[kahoutek]

Although I've only heard it a few times, it's been said that Iraq has more oil than Saudi Arabia......if it's true, the Saudis are crapping in their collective pants.

The last thing they want is competition, especially U.S. backed competition.

[lainde]

bump for weekend

[arasina]

BTTT