They May Take the Middle East with Them

[Jefferson23]

Foreign Policy In Focus
The Saudis Are Stumbling. They May Take the Middle East with Them.

By Conn Hallinan, November 11, 2015.


For the past eight decades Saudi Arabia has been careful.

Using its vast oil wealth, it’s quietly spread its ultra-conservative brand of Islam throughout the Muslim world, secretly undermined secular regimes in its region, and prudently kept to the shadows while others did the fighting and dying. It was Saudi money that fueled the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, underwrote Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran, and bankrolled Islamic movements and terrorist groups from the Caucasus to the Hindu Kush.

It wasn’t a modest foreign policy, but it was a discreet one.

Today that circumspect diplomacy is in ruins, and the House of Saud looks more vulnerable than it has since the country was founded in 1926.

Unraveling the reasons for the current train wreck is a study in how easily hubris, delusion, and old fashioned
ineptness can trump even bottomless wealth.

http://fpif.org/the-saudis-are-stumbling-they-may-take-the-middle-east-with-them/

[leveymg]

1. Too big to drone, too rich to care. They're an easy Prize now.

When the regime splinters and falls, all hell is going to get sucked in and it will be demon against demon to take pieces of the loot. It should be rather fun to watch in the beginning for those who enjoy seeing hubris at work.

Then the whole world of misbegotten wealth comes unhinged. That will be awful to watch from closer distance as it wells up over us.

[KoKo]

2. Good Read and links....

particularly this embed link in the paragraph...

http://fpif.org/hillary-clinton-hasnt-learned-a-thing-from-iraq/

Once again, the Saudis miscalculated, though in this case they were hardly alone. The Syrian government turned out to be more resilient than it appeared. And Riyadh’s bottom line that Assad had to go just ended up bringing Iran and Russia into the picture, checkmating any direct intervention by the anti-Assad coalition. Any attempt to establish a no-fly zone against Assad will now have to confront the Russian air force — not something that anyone other than certain U.S. presidential aspirants are eager to do.

[polly7]

3. K&R. nt.