No Shit, Sherlock

When we first bought into Saudi Arabia, due to the discovery of oil in March of 1938, little did we know where it would take us. Saudi Arabia has a history of playing both halves against the middle and, truly, quite successfully so. Think of it: they have managed throughout the years to appease the West and various militantly-Islamist factions rather adroitly. Certainly there have been some rough spots in the road but, overall, they manage to still hold the World Trump Card: oil.

I read this recently at NewsMax and thought: no shit, Sherlock. Tell me something I don't already know. To wit:

1. Saudi Arabia Is ‘World-Class Exporter’ of Terror
The involvement of Saudi Arabian citizens in worldwide terror did not end with the 9/11 attacks — today thousands of Saudis are managing terrorist networks and orchestrating suicide bombings and jihadist attacks around the globe.

Saudi Arabia has become, in short, a world-class exporter of Islamic violence, according to Youssef Ibrahim of the New York Sun, who cites these alarming developments:

-- As many as 30 Saudis enter Iraq each day with plans to become suicide bombers and kill Americans and Shiite Muslims.
-- More than 1,000 Saudis are now training at an al-Qaida camp in Syria, while others are training in camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
-- Of the insurgents who fought the Lebanese army’s during the siege of the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp, which claimed more than 300 lives, more than 30 percent were Saudis.
-- At least 800 Saudis are currently being held in Iraq or Jordan, charged with terrorist acts or intentions.
-- Outside the Middle East, Saudi jihadists are also operating in Somalia, Malaysia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Philippines.

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001, were Saudis.

Ibrahim pointed to a segment of ABC’s “World News Tonight” on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which detailed how Islamist terror originates and ends with “Saudi Arabia, its people, and its government,” Ibrahim writes.

The report “conjured an Orwellian image of a conveyor belt with human bombs placed on it running out of the House of Saud and reaching around the globe. Saudi-funded mosques and madrassas supplied ideological content, and wings of the Saudi ruling establishment stoked the fire of its infernal machine.”

Ibrahim raises the question of why the U.S. by and large “looks the other way” regarding the behavior of its so-called ally — and major source of oil.

The answer, he opines, lies not just in the well known “Bush-Saud Family” factor — the Saudi royal family’s links to the Bush family and associates — but in the “corrupting process” that reaches into “every segment of the American ruling establishment over three decades.” He asserts that many in Washington’s diplomatic and journalistic establishment have benefited from Saudi largesse intended to buy influence in the U.S.

Ibrahim concludes: “The result is that while Washington hears the music, it is not listening to the words.”

Let me posit this question now: do you faintly suspect that cash might be an issue?

At this point some will say that I am simply another Conservative Bush-Basher with an "agenda." Others on the Left might say that Bush is Evil Incarnate and thank Wicca or The Goddess or Gaia that I'm finally acknowledging this. I submit that it isn't even remotely this simple. Simple is, quite frankly, the very last word I'd use.

I submit that these are volatile, heady, confusing, disjointed times. I also submit this: that with our history, our many years of changing administrations, of the continuing imbalance in the temper of the times, in the fact that there are so many people on the planet, that there are so many differing belief systems, so many stressors, so many themes, inputs, views, pressures -- there is essentially no way that one person can deal with the accumulated mountain of prior historical precedents and "know everything" and, by that dint, make all the "proper" decisions. I am wondering how long our system of government can function.

Let's say: a Presidency declares Saudi Arabia a pariah; we pull all support, line our troops up along their border, cut off funding, freeze accounts, stop trade, point fingers, even send some teams in to kill certain royal members.

What would be the logical result? OPEC would retaliate and immediately. Oil supplies would be cut. Prices for gas would rise and then skyrocket. And then we'd simply be hamstrung. Gas stations would shut down. Lines would form for miles around the open stations. Then they too would limit their distribution. Everything we do revolves around oil. Everything. My ability to type on this keyboard. My ability to receive electricity through a generation station. Everything we need arrives by either truck or train. Those engines run on oil. We commute to work -- sometimes many miles away. Again, oil.

When we begin to triage what is important in terms of our ability to limit oil usage, then our economy, our ability to work, to produce a product, to live our lives, to walk through the door of our businesses, to rant on the internet, to listen to the radio, watch TV, play video games, enjoy dances, feed our children, turn a tap and expect some kind of acceptable water to pour forth, flush a toilet and expect it to re-fill -- all these aspects and more are affected.

Those fringe types who live in discarded Gillig buses, overpainted and rusting VW Transporters, doing their duty for AlGore -- and more Mainstream Global Warming Believers epiphanied by purchasing the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic Hybrid, riding their Specialized's to work, watching the Sundance Channel -- they are STILL buying into the repressive Oil Regime.

Folks: absolutely NOTHING GETS ACCOMPLISHED ON THIS PLANET THAT WASN'T ABETTED BY PETROLEUM PRODUCTS. NOTHING.

So: sure, drive a stake into the heart of Saudi Arabia. Makes you feel good. They kill Americans, right?

You ready to go back, as a result, to stone knives and bearskins? You read S.M. Stirling's "Dies The Fire" recently?

BZ

P.S.

The photo? King Ibn Saud with President Roosevelt on board a ship returning from the Yalta Conference in 1945. Can you blame Roosevelt for wanting to secure our future, even then?