The Saudi Connection...

[Rockhopper]

An article about Saudi Arabia's involvement in ISIL and how it came about.

Summing up the state of U.S.-Saudi relations, Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, said the Bush administration “thinks the Saudis are no longer behaving the role of the good vassal,” (emphasis mine) while the Saudis “see weakness, they see a void, and they’re going to fill the void and call their own shots.”

So they did, and today’s bloodthirsty Islamic State — born out of the remnants of Saddam’s army and the Saudi-funded Sunni insurgency — is the result. In the words of veteran Middle East reporter Patrick Cockburn, “Saudi Arabia has created a Frankenstein’s monster over which it is rapidly losing control.”

In view of this history, Saudi Arabia’s alleged snub of the Obama administration is small beer indeed. Memories in Washington must be short indeed if anyone really believes the two countries had smooth relations in times past. On the contrary, many of America’s most difficult foreign policy challenges today reflect the deadly consequences of our profound disagreements with Saudi Arabia.

Source

Tim.

[Agartha]

This middle east situation is really complicated: so many countries involved, so many 'friends' that are now enemies and so many former enemies being friends....... I read this on FB yesterday, it's going around in all languages now and even though it is not peer reviewed and maybe not 100% accurate, it does explain why we are all confused!

[Rockhopper]

So very true Ags. So very true.

Tim.

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