Acerbic Politics

Saudi Arabia

I was intrigued by the recent "leaked" news story that government officials in Saudi Arabia recently called Dick Cheney to visit so that they could share some important news with him. It seems that, if the U.S. abandons the war in Iraq, the Saudi government will provide aid and comfort to the the Sunni militants there. I guess that sort of makes sense - the Saudis are mostly Sunnis. The Sunnis are the minority faction, with the least amount of oil, in Iraq and they would probably be overrun (destroyed, killed, murdered - pick your term) without the protection of the U.S.

Yet there's so much more going on.

The Sunnis, who survive mostly because of U.S. protection, are the faction most likely to attack and kill U.S. forces.

The recent Saudi proclamation was probably made, and leaked, in order to throw more fear into Americans' lives so that we'd be less likely to pull our troops out of Iraq. I'm sure Saudi Arabia would much rather see Americans dying in Iraq that Saudis.

Iran, which is providing much military and financial support to the Shiites in Iraq, is a major competitor of Saudi Arabia. No friendship lost here.

Could a U.S. pullout trigger a hot war between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Iraq?

President Bush sure got us into a hell of a mess over there in the middle east.

Damn.