The Saudis get off the Bush bus, too.
An interesting article in Newsweek describing Saudi King Abdullah finally giving up on the Bush administration's middle east policy, and taking it upon himself to wade into the problems.
It paints a complicated picture of the Saudis agitating for the Israel Lebanon war, and Cheney's Thanksgiving visit to Saudi as the Bush administration's effort to sell a US attack on Iran.
Also, I agree fully with the analysis that the Saudi efforts at an Israel Palestine peace is solely about removing the agitation that allows the Iranians to maintain influence in Palestine and Lebanon.
However, I think the key question in this article is left open: How do the Saudis' different priorities in regional settlements affect US goals in the region?
Later: AFP jumps on the wagon. (I don't think it can be said clearly enough that these Saudi moves are based on a clear judgement that "the surge" will fail to meet its goals and Saudi interests. The current US surge is focusing mainly on the Sunnis, further empowering Iran in Iraq.
It paints a complicated picture of the Saudis agitating for the Israel Lebanon war, and Cheney's Thanksgiving visit to Saudi as the Bush administration's effort to sell a US attack on Iran.
Also, I agree fully with the analysis that the Saudi efforts at an Israel Palestine peace is solely about removing the agitation that allows the Iranians to maintain influence in Palestine and Lebanon.
However, I think the key question in this article is left open: How do the Saudis' different priorities in regional settlements affect US goals in the region?
Later: AFP jumps on the wagon. (I don't think it can be said clearly enough that these Saudi moves are based on a clear judgement that "the surge" will fail to meet its goals and Saudi interests. The current US surge is focusing mainly on the Sunnis, further empowering Iran in Iraq.
posted by mikevotes at
10:18 PM
2 Comments:
I think you said as much, but this has little to do with Israeli-Palestinian unrest and more to day with good Muslim, bad Muslim politics of who has influence in the region.
Are the Saudi moves symptomatic of an escalating Sunni-Shia civil war, beyond the geographic bounds if Iraq?
Saudi Arabia and Iran are nations. If they become more openly, militarily, belligerent, how does al Qaeda and other freelance operatives fit into the calculus?
Will the great war in the Middle East that we've feared since 1948 actually be a sectarian Muslim war, rather than a clash between the Jews and the Muslims? Will Israel and her interests be marginalize -- even moot -- if a sectarian war were to break out between the various "Muslim" nations of the Middle East and Gulf Region?
Jumping ahead of myself, I know, but I'm beginning to see a new chess board develop, and I'm not sure we're bishops or pawns.
By
-epm, at 9:26 AM
Just an opinion, but I don't think the Saudis really want that war.
I think that if such a war broke out, The Saudi monarchy would be at risk of being toppled by Sunni extremists either during that war or when they returned.
They're the ones trying to pull the US back from attacking Iran.
Plus, the Iranians have real veterans from the Iran Iraq war while the Saudi military is untested.
(I might argue that it's the US who wants a Sunni Shia regional war. At that point, the Saudis would be locked back into US control.)
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 12:05 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home