Bush can't call anarchy a civil war because then he'd have to explain why U.S. troops are still in Iraq! Steve Clemons
11.29.2006
Read
Nawaf Obaid today in the
Washington Post. Read it carefully.
Snip...
Obaid is a personal national security advisor to Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Turki al-Faisal and what he is writing is no doubt the public version of what King Abdullah told Cheney when the VP was summoned to Riyadh.
What Obaid has articulated here is not offered as a threat if the US leaves Iraq, which the US must do in my view. This is the first robust declaration that the Saudis are willing to fill the vacuum left by the United State in the region and knock back some of the unchecked expansion of Iranian influence in the region.
It's not good to have rising powers with pretensions of future greatness clashing like this -- but there is NO CHOICE.
And frankly, it's much better to have the Saudis engaged that not engaged in Iraq. Iran must be balanced --
and while this may seem like an escalation, it actually is an important potential cap on a worsening of this increasingly ulcerous mess in Iraq.
November 29, 2006, 10:38 am
Respected Saudi government adviser and security analyst Nawaf Obaid has startled many in Washington with an op-ed in the Washington Post today warning that Saudi Arabia could come to the aid of Sunni militias in Iraq should the U.S. pull out precipitously.
The piece lays out a scenario, if the U.S. did leave, in which Iranian-funded Shiite militias would essentially face off against Saudi-funded Sunni militias in a battle over Iraq’s future.
Obaid also says that Saudi Arabia could move to dramatically increase oil output in an effort to cut oil prices in half, a step that would be “devastating” to Iran’s economy. –Neil King Jr.
1 hour, 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday.
Diplomats and analysts say Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors, led by heavyweight Saudi Arabia, fear that the sectarian violence could spill into large-scale civil war between Shi'ites and Sunnis and set off a political earthquake far beyond Iraq.
Nawaf Obaid, writing in The Washington Post, said the Saudi leadership was preparing to revise its Iraq policy to deal with the aftermath of a possible U.S. pullout, and is considering options including flooding the oil market to crash prices and thus limit Iran's ability to finance Shi'ite militias in Iraq.
"To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks -- it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse," Obaid said.
more...40 minutes ago
TEHRAN (AFP) - Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on American forces to leave Iraq as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrapped up a three-day visit to neighbouring Iran.
"I advise you to leave Iraq to save whatever reputation you have left. Leave the responsibilities to Iraqi officials according to a timetable as the Iraqi government wants," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday, echoing calls earlier by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Talabani described his trip as "100 percent successful", and vowed the Iraqi people would "soon see results from this visit" following the comments by his "old friend" Ahmadinejad.
Khamenei told Talabani on Tuesday that the first step towards ending the violence should be the withdrawal from Iraq of US-led occupation forces.
more...Robert Scheer
How in the world did George W. Bush manage to turn Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the "Supreme Leader" of "Axis of Evil" Iran, into a prophet of peace in the Middle East?
That is the disturbing question that must be asked after Iraq's president journeyed this week to plead for support from what was previously described by the White House as one of the world's most menacing rogue regimes.
The White House is desperately twisting itself into knots to find a way out of an Iraq debacle sure to top the political agenda in the '08 presidential election. Having idiotically dug ourselves a terribly deep hole in Iraq--remember when protesters against the war were mocked for using the word "quagmire"?--Bush is now forced to beg Syria and Iran to throw us a rope.
more...
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