Former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer Patrick Lang takes the recent Saudi expression of concern over the situation in Iraq very seriously. At his Sic Semper Tyrannis blog (Saud al-Faisal on "the threat" 09/23/05), he reports on a recent conversation he had with a Saudi prince:
Yesterday, I sat with a member of the Saudi royal family to discuss this problem. This American educated prince told me that the Saudi government is now very concerned about Iranian ambitions, not just in Iraq, but eventually throughout the area and especially with regard to the oil reserves in the Kingdom and the Islamic Holy places in the Hijaz. He told me that American behavior is incomprehensible to the Saudis. ...
We are going to reap the whirlwind. There are those among us who probably think that will be good. I do not.
The Saudis went public last month with their concerns: US Iraq policy is widening sectarian divisions: Saud Khaleez Times/Reuters 09/22/05.
US policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal said on Tuesday. ...
“We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq after Iraq was driven out of Kuwait,” [this part of the comment doesn't seem to make much sense - Bruce] said Prince Saud, referring to the first Gulf War in 1991, when Saudi Arabia fought with US and other allied forces to liberate Kuwait after Iraq invaded.
“Now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason,” he said. Iranians, Prince Saud said, go into areas that American forces have pacified and “pay money ... install their own people (and) even establish police forces and arm the militias that are there.”
“And they are protected in doing all this by the British and American forces,” he added.
Presumably Lang had in mind comments like this one from Steve Soto of The Left Coaster blog: Now Even The Saudis Say Iraq Is Heading Towards "Disintegration" 09/22/05):
The Saudis want everyone to conveniently forget that they were one of the cheerleaders for the war, and now they are willing to shoot Bush in the back by saying that the Administration made several mistakes, such as Bremer's removal of the Sunni Baathists from the new government. Now the Saudis are concerned that Iran is too powerful, and that the Bush Administration is a little too pollyannish about the January election and the upcoming constitutional referendum.
Let the Saudis sweat this one out. If they find it uncomfortable to have an Iranian-supported, oil-rich province on their northern border within a couple of years, they will be reaping what they have sown.
No comments:
Post a Comment