Saudi and US - Sour Relations

CM · #1 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002, 05:20 AM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2202781.stm

This right after the Rand corporation thought it was a good idea to bomb saudi, take over the oil fields and get rid of Crown Prince Abdullah. Is this the start of a decline in US relations with Arab nations?

To note, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi, Kuwait and Iran are against the attack on Iraq. And Bahrain where the new US mobile command center is based, just said it was dead against the idea as well.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2201390.stm

Tamerlane · #2 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002, 06:35 AM

Well who knows, with the way that Bush is spouting out rhetoric after rhetoric without any crucial reason for invading. The rest of the world may follow suit, just look at Schroeder(sp?) and his election campaign in Germany, or in fighting within the British and the Australian (finally

) governments. Relationships are souring all over, but its not like we expected less from Bush.

I have to say that the lawsuit designed to "bankrupt" Al-Qaida whilst a symbolic stance is also really stupid. It was and still is a media circus and I sympathise with the Saudi community. Hopefully it ends before it really starts to damage the relations between the two.

Ack! You combined two threads into one Fas

Answer the war one another time, don't like writing anything thats even remotely long.

HighLordDave · #3 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002, 06:35 AM

The only reason why the US had any relations at all with the middle eastern Arab states is because they have oil and we need it. Barring that, we really don't give a damn about what happens in that part of the world. I think that US-Saudi relations have been in a funk for the last few years (and Dubya being president hasn't helped) and that while a war with Iraq might give the Republicans a slight boost in their numbers at the mid-term elections, it would be bad in the long run (of course, Dubya doesn't care much about the long run because unless the economy turns around quickly and vigorously, he won't be president past 2004).

fable · #4 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by HighLordDave
The only reason why the US had any relations at all with the middle eastern Arab states is because they have oil and we need it. Barring that, we really don't give a damn about what happens in that part of the world. I think that US-Saudi relations have been in a funk for the last few years (and Dubya being president hasn't helped) and that while a war with Iraq might give the Republicans a slight boost in their numbers at the mid-term elections, it would be bad in the long run (of course, Dubya doesn't care much about the long run because unless the economy turns around quickly and vigorously, he won't be president past 2004).

Agreement. I would only add that IMO, Bush is being extremely short-sighted in completely disregarding world opinion on a host of issues. Since the Federalist House of Representatives chose John Adams as the second president there has been a bias towards favoring party interests, but never at such an unparalleled expense to national longterm interests. When this administration finally departs--hopefully in 2004, either to a Democratic or different Republican administration--it will leave behind a world that simply won't believe any agreements made with the US are binding, and that no negotiations made with the US are being performed on the US side in good faith. Internationally, the US will have made allies (and expensive ones, whom we will have supported) of authoritarian regimes that paid lip service to "countering terrorism." The MidEast "hot zone" will have gotten that much hotter for lack of understanding at the top level of the complex issues involved. I suspect the next president, whomever that may be, will end up spending a lot of time mending fences broken by Bush, simply to accomplish basic international goals of ours that were once achieved with ease.

AntiChrist · #5 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002, 03:25 PM

Problem is what if Bush gets re-elected? I hope everyone is smarter than that, but after 9/11 who knows? People tend to do special things for the people that lead them through tragedies, no matter how bad a job they do. This whole Iraq thing is complete stupidity though. I don't even think Afghanistan was a good idea, but at least it was, in a sense, justified. I personally think that Bush has some big plans though. I wouldn't think he'd announce everything so publicly. Then again it could be much simpler, but it almost seems like good cover for something he's doing in the background, and that scares me...