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| Arabia |
| Trump picks retired general John Abizaid as US ambassador to Saudi Arabia |
| 2018-11-15 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... on Tuesday tapped John Abizaid, a top US general from the Iraq war who has studied the Middle East for years, as ambassador to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... . Abizaid is a fluent Arabic speaker of Lebanese Christian descent who headed US Central Command -- which covers the Middle East -- during the Iraq war from shortly after the US invasion in 2003 through 2007. The 67-year-old wrote his master's thesis at Harvard University about Saudi Arabia, studying how the kingdom makes its decisions on defense spending, in a paper that won acclaim in academic circles. A Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, native, Abizaid graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and later won a scholarship to study in Jordan, where he honed his Arabic, which he did not speak as a child. Trump has been slow in filling key posts amid his promises to shake up Washington. Abizaid requires confirmation from the Senate, which would appear likely as the retired four-star general has long enjoyed respect in Washington. Shortly after taking over as CENTCOM commander, Abizaid told news hounds that US forces were facing a "classical guerrilla-type campaign" from remnants of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. His choice of words contradicted his bosses, who initially tried to portray the Iraq invasion as a quick victory, but then defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not move to replace him amid admiration for Abizaid's skills. And soon after retiring in 2007, Abizaid said that, while the United States should try to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, "there are ways to live with a nuclear Iran," describing the holy manal state's behavior as rational and noting the United States also dealt with a nuclear-armed Soviet Union. |
| Posted by:Fred |