U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Saudi Arabia's King Salman at Erga Palace in Riyadh, Jan. 27, 2015.
Sarah Chayes and Alex De Waal, Defense One: Start Preparing for the Collapse of the Saudi Kingdom
For half a century, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the linchpin of U.S. Mideast policy. A guaranteed supply of oil has bought a guaranteed supply of security. Ignoring autocratic practices and the export of Wahhabi extremism, Washington stubbornly dubs its ally “moderate.” So tight is the trust that U.S. special operators dip into Saudi petrodollars as a counterterrorism slush fund without a second thought. In a sea of chaos, goes the refrain, the kingdom is one state that’s stable.
But is it?
In fact, Saudi Arabia is no state at all. There are two ways to describe it: as a political enterprise with a clever but ultimately unsustainable business model, or so corrupt as to resemble in its functioning a vertically and horizontally integrated criminal organization. Either way, it can’t last. It’s past time U.S. decision-makers began planning for the collapse of the Saudi kingdom.
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WNU Editor: What was unthinkable only a few years ago is now thinkable. And what was once a linchpin of U.S. Mideast policy has now been downgraded to a position that was also unthinkable only a few years ago.
2 comments:
The "Collapse of Saudi Arabia" would be a multi act drama. Assured sro theaters in Moscow, Tehran, Caracas, and Lagos. Those who wish for this event should consider very carefully what could happen. The House of Saud has many sins to atone for, but do we deserve to do penance for them? Perhaps it would be for the best and let the consequences be as they would be.
To those who would argue culpability by collusion I would remind them that no country or organization is untouched by the Sauds, none.
To those who argue we must support them as the least of evils in the region, I say something that can't go on, will not go on, and perhaps we only have the ability to say stop, not to support.
All in all this would represent changes that would challenge the Delphic Oracle itself.
Some people will not stop when Saudi Arabia sins in Tennessee.
So how can they be so outrage about Saudi Arabia in general?
It is hypocritical.
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