Chronicles
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The following article linked to is interesting, because this represents a very significant declaration in world politics that has been in movement for quite some time.
Pre- 9/1, on religious debate boards, I had read many fairly damning posts from right-wing US Christian publications, slamming the situation in Saudi Arabia. This was coupled with calls for the USA to somehow resolve what was an otherwise reliance on Saudi oil to the tune of 30% of all US oil usage.
That’s one reason why George W. Bush pointed towards Alaska, to prospect and develop oil fields in nature reserves in that state.
I also still see it as a major determining factor in terms of the motivations for the Iraq War. While it is not a sole cause, it would present an overwhelming strategic concern - not least that Sad dam Hussein still presented a threat to otherwise vulnerable producers of the Gulf region, such as Kuwait, of course. However, add to that the fact that a regime change to a friendly government in Iraq - the nation with the second largest oil-fields - would present a much needed relief from the political instabilities of Saudi Arabia.
Now, in the post Iraq War world, the Saudi Royal family has finally realised what the US political right in the USA has been arguing for years - that fundamentalist terrorism is active in Saudi Arabia, and seeking to overthrow the Saudi Royal family and to install a more fundamentalist Islamic regime.
For years the Saudis countered - claiming that it was Western workers running illicit alcohol smuggling rings that were the cause of various murders and bombings.
Only now, too late, are they finally and publicly accepting the truth of the domestic and geo-strategic position they are in:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3256349.stM
excerpt:
Pre- 9/1, on religious debate boards, I had read many fairly damning posts from right-wing US Christian publications, slamming the situation in Saudi Arabia. This was coupled with calls for the USA to somehow resolve what was an otherwise reliance on Saudi oil to the tune of 30% of all US oil usage.
That’s one reason why George W. Bush pointed towards Alaska, to prospect and develop oil fields in nature reserves in that state.
I also still see it as a major determining factor in terms of the motivations for the Iraq War. While it is not a sole cause, it would present an overwhelming strategic concern - not least that Sad dam Hussein still presented a threat to otherwise vulnerable producers of the Gulf region, such as Kuwait, of course. However, add to that the fact that a regime change to a friendly government in Iraq - the nation with the second largest oil-fields - would present a much needed relief from the political instabilities of Saudi Arabia.
Now, in the post Iraq War world, the Saudi Royal family has finally realised what the US political right in the USA has been arguing for years - that fundamentalist terrorism is active in Saudi Arabia, and seeking to overthrow the Saudi Royal family and to install a more fundamentalist Islamic regime.
For years the Saudis countered - claiming that it was Western workers running illicit alcohol smuggling rings that were the cause of various murders and bombings.
Only now, too late, are they finally and publicly accepting the truth of the domestic and geo-strategic position they are in:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3256349.stM
excerpt:
