“Singin hey diddle-diddle with the kitty in the middle”
King Abdullah’s harsh — and unexpected — attack on the U.S. military presence in Iraq could be a Saudi attempt to signal to Washington its anger over the situation in Iraq and build credibility among fellow Arabs.
It could mean a lot of things. In any case, it caught the Bubba Brigade in the White House unprepared.
“In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war,” said Abdullah, whose country is a U.S. ally that quietly aided the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Writers in some Arab media suggested before the summit that Saudi Arabia would seek solutions that would cater to U.S. interests.
“The king’s remarks are the biggest proof that those accusations were false,” said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi analyst. “In the issue of Iraq, Saudi Arabia went far beyond most other Arab countries. It went beyond the details and right to the cause.”
Al-Shirian said he expected other Arab countries to follow Saudi Arabia’s lead in considering the presence of U.S. troops an illegal occupation.
“If Saudi Arabia didn’t blame the occupation, the blame would fall on the Iraqis, who are victims. How can you blame the victim?” he asked.
Well, blaming the victim is often a politician’s specialty. The Saudis may be starting to review the future of a relationship with politicians who’ve only succeeded in exacerbating tensions and hatred in the Middle East.
Considering how much US debt the Saudis are carrying, Abdullah could pee on Bush’s desk and he’d have to just smile and take it.
No president has talked more about “strength and security” than Bush was making us weaker than ever.
There are 21 months left in this administration and it’s going to be a down hill ride all the way. [sigh]
So where are the Saudi troops? Why aren’t they getting directly involved to try and quell the sectarian violence?
Shit or get off the pot, King Abdullah.
Its nice to see the US media rally around a draconian theocracy when it serves its anti-Bush administration goals.
Wow – what a surprise. The country that supplied most of the assholes for 9/11 pisses on us – again.
Well as Greg said above – Its golden shower time for the Bushies!
Hey neocons! Time to get a clue and take the hit now and start backing alternative energy tech so we can let these savages get back to killing each other. Lets start with a wind-fall profits tax on oil company profits(prediction: the oil companies will have yet another record profit next reporting cycle – anyone bet against me?). Next anyone who makes more that $10,000,000 gets everything over,/b> that amount taxed at 100%, because quite frankly if you can’t live on 10,000,000 a year, you’re too stupid to live a all. Next cancel the Bush tax cuts. Next re-instate the “death” tax, start it at $10,000,001. Next raise emissions standards on cars. Switch from corn-based ethanol – which is about the dumbest way to make the stuff and start using sugar-based ethanol. Take all this money in new taxes and “Manhattan-project” alternative fuels projects.
If we did this I would bet that in 10 years the US economy would be booming and the Muslims can go back to their favorite religious past-time – whacking each other. If they act up we bomb them back to the stone age and not bother to re-build them because we don’t need their oil anymore.
I love to hear other suggestions.
Sorry I must have fat fingered the bold tag. Over was the only word to be bolded.
It’s just a put-up job for Abdullah-Dawg to reestablish some Arab street cred. Pretending to shove his pal Dubya away will be swallowed hook, line, sinker by most Arabs, and, I’m sure, lotsa gringos, too. I, for one, ain’t buyin’ a bit of it.
There’s a lot more subtle stuff going on sub rosa than Abby not wanting to hold hands with W anymore. The ties between his family and the Bushes run very deep and very private, to the tune of many billions of $ that continue to be funnelled around, well out of the public eye. Don’t ever forget the money – they don’t.
Bush knows his only chance to save himself and his party is expand the war into Iran.Seymour Hersh has a great article on it.I think the Saudi Royals think this is ill advised.The Iranians nabbed the Brits to try and stop the cross border raids by our special forces.If they had grabbed Americans the bombs would be dropping right now.
@5 Switch from corn-based ethanol – which is about the dumbest way to make the stuff and start using sugar-based ethanol.
——————-
Do you realize that Sugar is *not* a cash crop in the US? We can only grow it in a small % of about 3 states. Corn on the other hand we can *mass* produce. Yes Sugar is FAR more efficient, but we can’t grow it in any real supply. Brazil on the other hand grows sugar like the Afganies grow opium. Thus why Brazil is using the more appropriate option. But it’s also the most available option to them.
If we ditch oil for sugar we’ll just end up contracting our lives out to yet another country. It’s gotta be something WE can grow in good supply.
But otherwise I agree with you, the Saudies are diverting attention away from their own involvement.
If we ditch oil for sugar we’ll just end up contracting our lives out to yet another country. It’s gotta be something WE can grow in good supply.
Thank you W. R. Grace. I’m sure we’ll hear from your buddy A. D. Midland soon.
@10
Let’s see … Oh, you’re a douche bag … and your comment somehow invalidates my point how?
Given the increasing amount of news about a possible April 6 strike, BushCo must be scrambling for some sort of smoking gun to present to the American sheeple to get support for the attack. Hmmm, look up above in this blog, at that picture of the cute kitty and doggy. How much you want to bet that in the next few days, the FBI will announce that they have caught an Iranian terrorist “mole” working at that pet food company, suspected of poisoning the food being consumed by our darling Fluffy and Max? The sheeple would go nuts! Tag line on Faux News: IRANIANS POISON AMERICA’S PRECIOUS PETS… Let the tactical nuking begin!
13. “Given the increasing amount of news about a possible April 6 strike, BushCo must be scrambling for some sort of smoking gun to present to the American sheeple to get support for the attack. ”
I agree with you. I really hate to say this but I would look for a false flag type attack ie: Gulf of Tonkin, USS Liberty, to get the sheep on board with this. I can only hope we are wrong.
#9,
Grace – good points.
I only have one counter for you to consider – while very little sugar is grown now, unlike oil, which has to be there in the first place, we could devote more resources to growing sugar.
@15
Totally a good point, STA. Only issue. We can only grow it in small areas of our country b/c it’s too cold here. But crop maximization would be a logical next step, and an important one in whichever route we eventually go.
#9, 15: Sugar can be obtained from sugar beets also, and sugar beets can be grown in far more states than those that grow sugar cane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_beet
I was wondering when someone would bring up sugar beets. Good on you Floyd.
How efficient is the converson on the beets? (I’m asking b/c I don’t know)
That can make a big difference if they’re hard to convert. But if it works efficiently, then fantastic.
Sounds like the Saudis noticed the surrender sounds coming from the Democrats, and have decided to play along.
Oh, the US pisses all over its allies, too. Tony Blair alienates most of his own party and a majority of the British public as he holds Dubya’s d*ck while we go into Iraq, and what does he get out of it? US brokering Israeli-Palestinian deal? cooperation on global warming? lowering US tarrifs on British steel?
not a thing.
But yeah, our good “ally” Saudi Arabia sticks it to us, calling the occupation “illegal” (it was actually retroactively legalized by the UN) and simultaneously threatens to fund the Sunni insurgents if we pull out.
with friends like these …
20 – Let’s see. Here we have a war whose given reasons were intentional lies. The “mission accomplished” death toll keeps rising as hatred of the U.S. mounts and ever more money and new recruits pour into the fanatical Muslim war machine. Wanting to put a stop to that and make the world maybe just a bit safer for the U.S. is making “surrender sounds.” And up is down and the sky is green.
Jesus. The entertainment here never stops, does it.
Maybe what this country needs, to give it some common sense, is another 1973 like oil crisis. Maybe then we will do what we should have done in 73, invest in alternative fuel and higher energy efficiency. If we had done so in 73, we would not have needed to invade IRAQ the first time.
Maybe with Saudi Arabia’s lead, Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC, consisting of the Arab members of OPEC plus Egypt and Syria) will announce, as a result of the ongoing IRAQ War, they would no longer ship petroleum to nations that had supported USA in its conflict in IRAQ (i.e., to the United States and its allies in Western Europe).
King whats his name made this speech for public consumption only. Everyone, including the King knows full well that the Whabbi monarchy lasts 45 seconds without the US to keep it up.
They supply money, men and safety for terrorists, we supply the means to keep the King and his 3600 other members of the royal house in mansions, whores and drugs and the multi-nationals make a fortune.
Meanwhile Americans, Iraqi’s, Palistianians, Israeli’s and soon, Iranians give their lives so this dog and pony show can go on.
Oops; even with all the Texas hand holding going on, there goes the price of oil…