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The Saudi Contradiction
Opinion Journal ^ | 10/30/2001 | The editors

Posted on 10/29/2001 8:09:04 PM PST by Pokey78

Edited on 04/23/2004 12:03:51 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Riyadh's leaders must enter the 21st century. Their very survival is at stake.

Crown Prince Abdullah has now admitted what everyone else has been thinking, which is that the U.S.-Saudi relationship is "at a crossroads."

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the Saudi ruler wrote to President Bush in August that "a time comes when peoples and nations part" and that "it is time for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to look at their separate interests. Those governments that don't feel the pulse of the people and respond to it will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran."


(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 10/29/2001 8:09:04 PM PST by Pokey78
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2 posted on 10/29/2001 8:14:00 PM PST by Free the USA
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To: Pokey78
Who can argue with this editorial? Thanks for the post.
3 posted on 10/29/2001 8:16:06 PM PST by shrinkermd
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To: Pokey78
This sure says alot!
4 posted on 10/29/2001 8:16:54 PM PST by b4its2late
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To: Pokey78
Wow. Kudos to the editorial staff of The Wall Street Journal for their superb reporting on the Saudi problem. No other media source in the country is confronting this crucial issue head on the way they have.
5 posted on 10/29/2001 8:17:49 PM PST by Cicero
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To: Pokey78
When the Sauds fall, the West should grant them no sanctuary. Let the Arab mobs tear the fat pigs apart.
6 posted on 10/29/2001 8:22:13 PM PST by LoneRangerMassachusetts
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To: Pokey78; snopercod; Travis McGee; joanie-f; mommadooo3
"Those governments that don't feel the pulse of the people and respond to it will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran."

Indeed, it does say a whole lot.

I wonder how much more it says about Russian influence behind the social sea-change which has distrurbed the Saudi leaders, in like manner by which the Russians fomented much of what toppled the Shah?

The above statement says practically everything about the Why behind the inertia of whatever support our once-ally has recently offered.

7 posted on 10/29/2001 8:22:25 PM PST by First_Salute
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To: dennisw; veronica; Sabramerican; Lent
bump
8 posted on 10/29/2001 8:22:46 PM PST by monkeyshine
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To: Cicero
WSJ editors never pull their punches. It's the whole reason I subscribe-- I barely look at the business news. Eighty bucks a year for the on-line, and worth every damn cent.
9 posted on 10/29/2001 8:23:33 PM PST by walden
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To: Pokey78
The Saudis haven't done squat. We don't need to preserve the house of Saud. We should probably secure the oil fields and let them fight it out for the rest of the land.
10 posted on 10/29/2001 8:25:28 PM PST by monkeyshine
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To: Pokey78
Good post..thanks.
11 posted on 10/29/2001 8:35:33 PM PST by DKNY
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To: Pokey78
These are real jerks. Too bad they don't eat bread, else they'd know which side it is buttered on. Duhhh!


12 posted on 10/29/2001 8:40:47 PM PST by jws3sticks
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To: Pokey78
Screw the House of Saud. We should move our troops to the oil fields and take them over. Cut off the Sauds from every penny of oil money. As the kingdom dissolves into civil war, support King Abdullah of Jordan to step in as the legitimate protector of Mecca and Medina. As heir to the Hashemite dynasty he already has this legitimacy in the eyes if many Arabs. Turn our backs as he liquidates the Wahhabi radicals, driving hundreds of thousands to die in the desert if necessary. When they are all dead or pacified, turn the oil fields over to him again. Repeat as necessary: Iraq, Syria, etc.

-ccm

13 posted on 10/29/2001 10:30:25 PM PST by ccmay
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To: Pokey78
"Those governments that don't feel the pulse of the people and respond to it will suffer the fate of the Shah of Iran."

But Jimmy Carter isn't president. I don't get the point he's trying to make.

14 posted on 10/29/2001 10:33:15 PM PST by TheLooseThread
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To: shrinkermd
"Who can argue with this editorial?"

It is a good post. I may argue with this part:

"But as a practical matter, the debt-ridden Saudis need the petrodollars as much as the West needs the oil. An OPEC embargo for political reasons might send the developed world into recession, but the West would weather it better than the Gulf countries."

Underestimating the importance of oil is like whistling in the dark. It sounds good to say this, but I'm not so sure that it wouldn't have a big impact.

Hey! I didn't think of this when I started the post, but... if we stop using their damn oil they lose all their power.

Here is my new car: Prius!

It is a hybrid. I get 65 mpg when I baby it, 52 mpg if I drive like a madman. I'm an engineer and I HATE designs that only work on paper, not the real world. I was going to buy an SUV and when to test this car (so I could check it off the list). Wow! It is a real car that holds a family of 5, doesn't need to be plugged in (what nonsense!), is cleaner than an all-electric car (drives the enviro-nuts... ugh... nuts), is made of regular old steel, and gets great mileage.

Sorry, didn't mean a commercial. But trust a fellow freeper. If we all drove cars like it we could tell the saudis to go screw themselves.

15 posted on 10/29/2001 10:47:01 PM PST by TheLooseThread
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To: TheLooseThread
'But Jimmy Carter isn't president. I don't get the point he's trying to make.'

LOL, thank you! This response is the best philosophy i've heard yet, ugh it's painfully true how much the media hates Bush.

16 posted on 10/29/2001 11:12:48 PM PST by Darheel
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To: monkeyshine
The Saudis haven't done squat. We don't need to preserve the house of Saud. We should probably secure the oil fields and let them fight it out for the rest of the land.

Time to break up the pan Arab cabal and the likely funders of a lot of Islamic fundamentalism.

17 posted on 10/30/2001 6:46:35 AM PST by Lent
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To: Pokey78

Can anyone make a gif file like this one using the Saudi flag?


18 posted on 10/30/2001 7:55:23 AM PST by JeepInMazar
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To: Pokey78
bump
19 posted on 10/30/2001 8:25:07 AM PST by Free the USA
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