Saudi fangs are out – by Farid Ghadry
Many Saudi experts, if they had to agree on one common denominator with regard to Saudi diplomacy on the international scene, would most likely concur on its patience and steady approach. The culture that survived the harshest conditions humans could endure learned a long ago that between long stretches of desert water is always to be found. That patience, though, is yielding to anger. Thanks to Barack Obama, the Saudi fangs are out.
Historically, Saudi Arabia has relied on its US ally for security in return for unfettered access to its oil deposits to include long-term sales and exploration commitments to American oil companies. It was a marriage of high convenience that saw both countries benefit from their alliance in ways that brought stability to a much-turmoiled land where civilizational divide was alyways the elephant in the room. The architecture of this alliance began shortly after World War II.
Then came Barack Obama. A U.S. president whose views of the world are so twisted and so convoluted, it would make for a whole new genre of political order baked in a combination of conspiratorial concepts and naive thinking. Obama believes America to be a flawed country whose repeated successes must be replaced with a social order of equality. Add his venomous hidden agenda to see strong U.S. allies weakened or threatened, and one would have created the perfect incubator for terror. A daring Iran and Hezbollah in addition to the forming of ISIS, and a myriad of other new terrorist groups are but the creation of Barack Obama’s twisted vision. Obama loves rogue and terrorist nations, but none loves him back because they all view him as the symbol of American might no matter how far he bends to their will.
Neither Obama, nor his policies are sitting well with Saudi Arabia and its al-Saud leadership. If there was ever a reason to dislike Obama, the Saudis found it in his flawed Iran Deal, in his insults against the kingdom when he called the Saudis “free riders” forgetting the two-way oil street, and in his attempts to abuse further the relationships by giving the impression the Saudis agree with him on his Iran policy conduct.
His latest trip to Saudi Arabia has broken the camel’s back because it came on the heels of a non-accidental 60 Minutes segment on Saudi Arabia insinuating its senior leadership were involved in the 9/11 terror attack when the truth is anything but. So while Obama is trying to deflect from Iranian threats against the kingdom, he is hedging his bet by using the kingdom to shield his own incompetence when it comes to Iranian threats. The Saudis, on the other hand, won’t let him get away with it so easily. Their fangs are out and unfortunately stability has become the victim of Obama’s own shortsightedness and ineptitude.
In the seven years Barack Obama has been the U.S. President, he managed to offend almost every European and Arab country. Whether returning the bust of Churchill to the British Embassy in Washington or snubbing the French president during a visit to Normandie. Whether the insults her rained on U.S. Arab allies or his non-chalant approach towards Israeli existential threats of his own making, Barack Obama might be the most hated president ever.
But not everyone is unhappy with Barack. The Iranian terror masters love his naïveté. The Russian thugs love his timidity and cowardice towards the Ukraine and Syria. The Cubans love him for submitting America to their will. After 50 years of isolation, it was America that came calling on its knees; even when Cuba continues to abuse the human rights of its own people and Obama, the first black president, seems not to mind what happens to people seeking freedom from tyranny.
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