Saudi Arabia is Sunni, contains the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, has the respect of its Arab neighbors, has a working relationship (abet under the table) with Israel, and has both oil and oil money running out its ears. All good Moslems are supposed to make a journey to Mecca (the Hadj) in Saudi at least once in a lifetime. All in all, having the Saudi's on our side helps us dealing with all the other players in the middle east.
The disappearance, most likely murder, of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, may well break up our good relations with Saudi. The TV news is saying that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate at Istanbul. I'm never all the sure that the TV news has it right, but today it's all I have to go on. If the TV newsies have it right, we have a problem. Much as we might like to continue our good relationships with the Saudi's, it will become politically difficult-to-impossible to ignore the outrage among the American electorate and Congressmen. This outrage will likely force us to take action against the Saudi's. And things will go down hill from there.
I have to think that the Saudi's have really botched this one. Offing a political enemy, on foreign soil, is so provocative as to make me wonder it the Saudi's have there heads screwed on right.
No comments:
Post a Comment