Juan Cole: Saudi King must be "Hopping mad" at Bush

[n2doc]

Saudi King Abdullah said on Wednesday at the opening of the Arab League meetings, "“In beloved Iraq, blood is shed among our brothers while there is an illegitimate foreign occupation and a hateful sectarianism that is threatening to develop into a civil war . . .”

King Abdullah followed up on these harsh criticisms of the US by cancelling his planned appearance at a White House dinner in April. The Saudi royal family is fit to be tied that Bush gave Iraq away to fundamentalist Shiite parties that have close ties to Iran.

Although the Saudi statement is remarkable for its brutal frankness and coldness toward the United States, its real significance is its slam of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abdullah has not only said that the US presence is an illegal occupation, he has said that the al-Maliki government is nothing more than Shiite sectarian hegemony. The Saudis are known for their behind the scenes diplomacy and their public discretion. King Abdullah is hopping mad, to talk this way. It augurs ill for US-Saudi relations. Abdullah is also angry that Bush is letting the Palestine issue fester and that he pushed for open Palestinian elections but then cut off the Hamas government once it was elected. Abdullah thinks Bush is pursuing irrational policies, the effect of which is to destabilize the Middle East. He is so angry that he sounds a bit like Iraqi Sunni fundamentalist leader Harith al-Dhari, who is connected in some shadowy way with the Sunni guerrillas fighting the US. (See the interview, below).

http://www.juancole.com/

He also notes that Iraqi insurgents are firing rockets into the green zone "at will" meaning NO PLACE in Baghdad is safe.

[TwilightGardener]

1. Well, if they're mad at us for helping the Shia, maybe we should

remind them that we're covertly paying Sunni jihad groups with ties to Al Qaeda to stir up trouble elsewhere--we've got their backs! LOL!

[hlthe2b]

3. one big cluster f...ck all the way around...

If 2009 doesn't get here quickly, there may be nothing (and no one) left here to govern

[Ishoutandscream2]

14. Yes, Bush has royally fucked up Iraq

and should be charged with war crimes, but the hypocrisy of the Saudi's is so over the top. How many of the hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. 'scuse me. too many words. "Bush has royally fucked up." is far more

accurate and descriptive.

[Ishoutandscream2]

18. Touche'

[hlthe2b]

2. re: "Abdullah thinks Bush is pursuing irrational policies"

Gee, you think?


Ole Bushie is gonna have to hope he doesn't piss off the Paraguayans too badly... It doesn't seem he's going to have any other friends left in the world...:eyes:

[n2doc]

4. I guess he isn't watching Faux news back home

Seems like the MSM propaganda is the only thing keeping the "30 percenters" going here.

Kick the prop out of propaganda. I have an old button from my college days with that slogan, seems appropriate still..

[eridani]

5. Permalink

http://www.juancole.com/2007/03/shiite-fighters-kill-70-sunnis-in-tal.html

[Dover]

6. There's just no honor among thieves anymore....sigh....n/t

[Old and In the Way]

7. I feel better knowing George W. Bush is finessing the various political flash points in the ME.

No, really.

[n2doc]

8. He do seem to be quite the "Uniter, not Divider" don't he? n/t

[PATRICK]

9. How simple is it?

The Saudis, as part of their effort to curb the Shiites is a major mover toward an iran strike. Still want that? Probably, so this plays in establishing some surface "innocence" as that war approaches. It also creates background for "some Saudis" getting back into the terror game with 'justification'.

In any event, it is positioning vis a vis the treacherous Bush alliance and current role in the Mideast. The Saudis want to shape and dump- but perhaps not yet bring to an end- the US aggression that is useful to so many odd bedfellows who are paying each such a bloody high price likely to end up blowing all their schemes and futures to kingdom come. that includes israel, the Shiites themselves, any Sunni group. They have the power to stop much of this with a phone call, but perhaps they fear they do not and having their bluff called is something they will not directly court.

At THIS late moment to suddenly realize the arrogance and downright betrayal of the brutally inefficient Empire machine they might have thought bought or compromised or sympathetic beggars the imagination to comprehend.

Here in America on the other hand, painfully slow indeed is the realization of all too many that we have killed a million people brutally for criminal intent of a crooked administration and that NO interests are really solved by war. Trying to cut loose the Saudis and Israel from the coming fiasco is very late in the game. Brzezinski finally says gravely and expertly what amateurs here have been spotting for years. Wes Clark is finally spelling out a deep critique of israel's self destructive course to war and not only trusting the wrong people but propping these monsters to control and ruin their best ally. While I certainly am taking no credit for scooping anyone, on being no possible solution for Israel other than support from the world community and giving up impossible dreams of ethnic religious purity as defined by unshared sacred geography, the realization is coming not with the light bulb but the flash of bombs. Very very late and no one wants to face up to ending the game or facing up to real change.

The Iran War is still imminent, and determined. If it does not come to pass it will not be because of some extraordinary power or resistance, but a close thing of degrees, attrition, caution, time. As with the Cuban Missile Crisis, we the walking dead simply will not appreciate our reprieve, how stupidly close "smart" people let us come or how near a miss it was to prevent scoundrels from steering dully cruel international and business policy.

[TwilightGardener]

10. Wes Clark

will never be allowed near the reins of power, I'm convinced. I'm not sure if it's AIPAC, the PNAC crowd, or both working in concert (since there's overlap in the groups)--but anybody who's willing to sound the alarm about the neocon plan and refuses to kiss Israel's ass doesn't stand a chance in '08.

[w4rma]

11. AIPAC isn't Israel. They are a bunch of Likudists (or former Likudists, now). (nt)

[PATRICK]

12. The Political Pilgrimage Trail

I would like to see the whole thing obliterated, of course, even though it is status for important public interest groups like Labor or the NAACP. You go, genuflect, say the holy words, gain the blessing and move on. Courting the Jewish vote or unions or blacks supposedly made easy, symbolic, redemptive. However the delegation of the extrapolated reality of the groups or their interest to institutionalized high priests and their shrines can become as corrupt and corrupting as any historic counterparts.

[Clark2008]

16. My Jewish husband plans to vote for him if he runs - and so

does his entire Jewish family.

I know being Jewish doesn't necessarily equate to being pro-Lukid Israeli, but it's a start.

[TwilightGardener]

21. Isn't Wes part Jewish? I also read somewhere that the majority

of Jews in the U.S. are against the Iraq War. AIPAC doesn't speak for them, apparently. Just a big fat power-and-influence-hungry lobby.

[bemildred]

13. "Hopping mad" sounds about right. nt

[Chimichurri]

15. Well it's hard to please both AIPAC and King Abdullah at the same time.

[Rex]

19. Iraq is a clusterfuck, from day one.

See, when you let stupid people start wars they spiral into children growing up without ever getting to meet their mom or dad. On all sides. The Saudis are up to necks in this shit, they have the bonus of holding all the cards against the BFEE.

[SaveAmerica]

20. It's official; Bush's last friend just walked out the door