Posted on 06/09/2015 3:38:11 PM PDT by markomalley
Based on experience, given you screen name?
Saudi Arabia seems like a strong, unified country. From the prospective of the Middle East, it is. But like a Ming vase with a crack in it, it has an inherent and potentially fatal flaw. The royal family maintains control through the religious police, a secret police and payments to every citizen based on oil revenues. The family is always on shaky religious ground because they, by necessity, deal daily with issues like loans and interest which are not allowed by Islamic law. They have done some theological contortions to create the appearance of conforming, but they aren’t and it’s fairly obvious. It is also unlikely that the Saudi military will die for the country. The military is controlled mostly by royal family officers who got their positions through genetics rather than skill, which has historically been a losing formulae. If soldiers start to die the royal family will be at great risk of being overthrown. There is no other governing body that could step into the breach and the country would likely splinter instantly into tiny fiefdoms. Iran, could at any moment, close the Straits of Hormuz which would cut off the bribe payments to the populace. Saudi Arabia is, despite appearances to the contrary, one of the most fragile governments in the Middle East.
Feed the alligator, expect to be food.
Well, we do not import that much from SA. Seems like the Chinese and Japs might be more interested in stopping them.
Eyes on the prize.
The Holy Cities are jewels in the Caliphate Crown.
I imagine you are correct.
The US, however, should still be committed to "the free flow of oil at market prices". And I'm thinking that American oil companies retain a substantial financial interest in Aramco.
I wonder if those who said Romney was just as bad as Obama will finally admit they were wrong. And stupid.
Yes....but wouldn’t it be fun to watch? Just for a couple of minutes?
Oh ! we can’t let them get those places! we better nuke them first so as to keep them out of the bad guys hands
Wouldn’t be the first time.
Mecca and Medina are segregated Islamic supremacist cities anyhow.
It is true. For years now people of this planet have assumed my fair intentions. MUHAHAHAHA!!
Sorry, I don't have much stomach for beheadings. You can have the watching, I'll stick with imagining...
Does this mean that the Saudis are going to stop funding radical Islam abroad since that was the agreement last time this happened?
SA has used the relief valve of allowing their ‘youths’ to flood the battlefields of Iraq and Syria. Gitmo is full of them, as was Abu Ghraib.
They don’t mind them going out and killing whitey or killing the Shia. But, they don’t want them back in their country.
While I am no expert, ISIS seems to want to destroy Mecca rather than rule over it.
Bizarre world for sure. Let’s see now, who are the muslim good guys?
Nah, the Saudis enjoy their western lifestyle (when off campus) too much to let the isis idiots win, plus they are armed to the teeth and well trained.
BTW, I attended a private showing of an old classic movie (Harold and Maude) at a local MeetUp group last weekend, and met a very young Saudi guy there, maybe 18-20. He’s at a local uni on a one-year arts scholarship to study movie directing. A polite, good-natured young man with at least a half-western mindset.
Saudi has a lot of citizens like this one. They are not going to let their country go down to mediaeval isis creeps. I look forward to getting to know him at these events during his year here, hope to get further insights and perhaps even influence his thinking. In my jeans, sipping a glass of champagne and petting a gorgeous collie, I was so incredibly different from his grandma back in the kingdom. LOL.
I was thinking more of them blowing up the big black box in the middle of Mecca.
THe odd thing is that the Saudi’s helped get Obola elected.....and they must be ruing their choice
“They are not going to let their country go down to mediaeval isis creeps.”
And during my corporate career, I worked with an Iranian fellow, who had earned his undergrad engineering degree here, and then continued as my subordinate, working on his MBA.
All the while he assured us he favored western democracy, once the Shah was finished.
When 1979 came along, and Americans were held hostage, this guy celebrated the revolution. Within days his fellow workers, entirely shocked and feeling betrayed, virtually ran him off the premises.
We were a large multinational, with our own employees still holed up in Tehran, Esfahan, etc.
He blew whatever way the wind blew. I don’t trust anybody of any stripe from the region.
No offense, or criticism of your friendship. Good luck.
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