Article

2004-01-01 Arabia

Saudi thinkers plan to combat "extremism"

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2004-01-01 00:26|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 This is rich, to play upon a pun. I find myself wanting to quote The Deteriorata for the second time in as many days (scary!)... since these "recommendations" are to be delivered to the Clown Prince it's not mysterious - it's about following the money, or to use the quote, "know what to kiss - and when." QED.

Posted by .com 2004-1-1 12:50:12 AM|| 2004-1-1 12:50:12 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 .com, check out the January 1 post by Wretchard at the Belmont Club site

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/

Posted by Matt 2004-1-1 11:09:05 AM|| 2004-1-1 11:09:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Matt - I've been waiting for the fallout from that article, "Saudi Paradox" - which is chock-full of information and even covers some of the nasty subtleties, yet Doran (the author) and his editorial twits came away with incredibly foolish and asinine conclusions. Dan's piece certainly made mincemeat of them - and drew an infinitely more intelligent conclusion! I also respect Wretchard's writing and grasp of the salient points - his provocative suggestions always define the range of options in clear terms. Re: the Saudis, well, IMHO it's a tossup whether SA or Pakiwakiland is the most byzantine miasma of myopia and corrupt inbred human devolution on the planet. :-)

Posted by .com 2004-1-1 12:04:04 PM|| 2004-1-1 12:04:04 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 What do you think Bush's strategy toward SA really is, public pronouncements aside? Soft power? Prince Bandar for King? Choke the cash? Operation Saudi Freedom? 40km strip?

Posted by Matt 2004-1-1 12:37:45 PM|| 2004-1-1 12:37:45 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Matt - Whew! You skip the easy ones, eh? I wish I knew what the strategy line is. One thing I am becoming more confident about is that he is jettisoning Geo41's entirely too smarmy relationship with them. Where we (probably) go from here has to be confrontation. Those 80 pages probably constitute much of the casus belli required for direct action. Of course, if I were Dubya, you already know I would follow your lead and skip the softball approach - no negotiating or demanding lame promises which they'd never keep - just take the oil away from them. The resulting scramble to get a piece of it would be illuminating. Since he was talked into playing the UN game, I am worried that he'll continue soft and slow - wasting time while they add to their terror treasury... until the next hit. Then any remnants of daddy's baggage will certainly be dumped entirely.

Posted by .com 2004-1-1 1:01:35 PM|| 2004-1-1 1:01:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 And the Pakland issue is even tougher, what wit' the nukes and all. My ignorant guess is that we're waiting to see what the fallout from Iraq really is; if that doesn't have the desired effect, then we go for another piece of low-hanging fruit (Syria-Lebanon.) If there's another hit, God forbid, all bets are off.

Posted by Matt 2004-1-1 1:24:38 PM|| 2004-1-1 1:24:38 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 IMHO SyrLeb is just a symptom - a pool of cannon fodder, and like Pakiwakiland, is fueled by Saudi money. When we get a clue and that dries up - implosion won't be far behind. It couldn't happen to a more deserving pair of looneybins. The double-whammy is that the loss of Wahhabi money would also mean that the Pakiwakis couldn't survive by selling nukes, either, since those few loonies left with any native cash would be very very conspicuous - and in the sights. So about that oil down in So Chad...

Posted by .com 2004-1-1 5:10:06 PM|| 2004-1-1 5:10:06 PM|| Front Page Top

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