…this new Saudi phase of the ISIS battle plan threatens to shatter the illusion of the Saudi behemoth. And that’s terrifying. Because without a real and present Saudi threat, the last remaining check on Tehran becomes Israeli spies and American bombs.
The House of Saud is more like a House of Cards. One wonders if they will be able to secure a few Paki nukes in time to flatten Tehran out of spite – if and when the fall of the monarchy appears imminent. Crazy times ahead people.
Who in the world has to rely on Saudi oil? North America I believe now has internal oil security with all the frakking. Russia is fine, too. China – they have their own sources, don’t they? Maybe India is a major importer.
Regardless, somebody is going to be squeezed is Saudi oil is captured. But you would think S.A. would fight tooth and nail to protect themselves, rather than hope somebody else comes to their rescue.
Just like a sandcastle on the beach the tide comes in and no more sandcastle its as simple as that
Why should the world get their shorts in a knot for this bunch? They have financed and exported radical Islam to the world for decades. They are a dictatorship that
uses their religion to control their citizens. These are people who regularly execute citizens. Yet with all this history people consider them a ally and a bastion of reason in the ME. Even Iran has elections and actually change governments.
The Saudis cynically used the Palestinians as surrogates in attacking Israel for decades. The radical Islamic movements in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are groups originally funded by Saudi Arabia. They have lost control and now are faced by their creations turning on their benefactors.
Fracking technology has increased world oil supplies to the point that Saudi Arabia does not carry the same global political influence. The USA has moved towards a ME
policy that de-emphasized the Saudi relationship. Iran is actually a stronger strategic ally. If the Americans can improve that relationship their influence in Tehran might moderate Irans attitude towards Israel. The Saudis are so corrupt that their survival is in question.
The truly interesting aspect of these changes is how Israel reacts. If the Israelis continue to see Iran as their greatest threat surprise, surprise they might ally with the Saudis. The Sunni world allying with the Israelis!!!
“Who in the world has to rely on Saudi oil?”
The Germans.
Who will quickly remember the Teutonic joy of marching in step after a couple of months without gas to put in their BMWs.
“But you would think S.A. would fight tooth and nail to protect themselves, rather than hope somebody else comes to their rescue.”
You would think that. But then you would remember that these are Arabs. They are hell on jets at beating women, selling them into slavery and executing captives. Rather less good at holding the line and keeping the guns fed, as it were.
Historically speaking, you understand. Who knows, perhaps this army of Saudi conscripts will amaze and astound us with their battlefield exploits.
But given that a fair percentage of ISIS is Saudi nationals off “having a lark” in Syria and Iraq, the chances are low. (Slow witted Leftist read-until-offended types please note, “having a lark” is in quotes because its sarcasm.)
While it hasn’t exactly quite gained popular use, the sarcastrophe is the name given to punctuation used to indicate sarcasm. The humble caret is used to delimit sarcastic phrases ^like so^. You can imply ^^heavy sarcasm^^ through the use of additional carets.
If you’re among Leftist read-until-offended types, you’ll often see some form of closing element borrowed from HTML or BBCode used to denote sarcasm – e.g. [/sarcasm] or . There’s also /sarcasm, which is a reference to IRC commands that needed to be preceeded with a slash. Even though they look visually similar, the /sarcasm reads to me as an indication that sarcasm is being performed, rather than an indication that sarcasm has concluded (as with the closing elements).
add this to the mix
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32929855
take the attention away from the mussis
I guess ISIS doesn’t accept protection money from Saudi princes. ISIS has its own country so oil and money.
One of these days the world is going to get their s**t together and take out all the Islamist jihadists.
No we don’t need, or want their oil. Let Europe the Russians and the Chinese sort it out.
Just arm Israel to the teeth so they can deal easily with any Islamist ass****s who try anything nasty.
Oh, and Iran will have/has nuclear weapons – everybody now, thanks Barack.
ISIS want’s to implement Sharia law, which SA already does as well. I’m sure Saudi money supports ISIS. They are not quarreling with the Saudi’s but going for the Shias and lukewarm Sunnis.
Those evil buddhists. They are fighting back against mor pushy religionists, particularly muslims in Burma and Thailand.
As long as noisy little suspended-adolescent bastards and their MSM sock puppets keep squealing about fracking and fossil fuel use of any sort, and as long as lawmakers pay the least attention to them, our domestic oil supplies are in danger.
Back when I was in Saudi we used to joke that “The Saudis declared war on Israel……and gave the contract to the Koreans”.
This, I can see…but fight themselves?..not so much.
Yeah well, I recall that during Desert Shield, it was discovered that Saudi’s tanks gun linings needed replacement….Saudis love to shoot and had worn them out….but the deportation of their Palestinian mechanics, showed that the Saudi crews, because they abhorred getting the hands dirty, couldn’t maintain their equipment.
Give the Saudis their credit, rather than hire more foreigners, they did a crash course on maintainence…..with US Army instructors. It was rumoured that Isrealis had long been mentoring Saudis on tank gunnery.
Strategically, suicide bombers are a controversial matter. While are organic smart bombs, they are empiricial evidence of desperation. Saudis weakness has vast territory with a meager population…..a matter addressed by using cutting edge equipment to compensate.
Saudi like Israel, has a numerically weak military but lacks Israel’s pragmatic talent pool.
It is rumoured that Israel and Saudi have a undeclared military alliance….a circumstance predictably unpopular in both lands.
Israel is a modern land while Saudi is mired in the 8th century with new Cadillac’s.
I’m going back 30 years here, but one of the guys on our project, stationed alone up in al Jouf, used to say that periodically an IDF fighter would do a touch & go at the local airstrip…..just to show he could. Saudi air force nowhere in sight.
Screw the sauds. Seriously. Screw em.
Yeah I heard that one too…..
The harsh reality is that after the second such instance, a WW2 generation AAA gun would make that suicide.
It fit right in with the tale of the Arab Army cry, of, “run for your lives….there’s 2 Jews”….
According to this guy, to whom I spoke over the phone, he saw them – I didn’t, so I can’t verify.
Although I can imagine that shooting down an IDF fighter, (and the possibility of retaliation), by rocket or whatever means, was something that the Saudis wished to avoid.