I thought Cheney and Saudi King Abdullah were buds?

[Flabbergasted]

U.S. rejects Saudi view of Iraq as “illegally occupied”
3/30/2007 1:00:00 AM GMT



The White House rejected Saudi King Abdullah’s statement that Iraq is under an “illegitimate foreign occupation”, saying that U.S. forces are in the war-torn country at Iraq’s invitation under a UN mandate.

{b]"It is not accurate to say that the United States is occupying Iraq," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Thursday. (Ok what are the military bases about.)

King Abdullah surprised Washington on Wednesday when he told Arab leaders attending a summit in Riyadh: "In beloved Iraq, blood flows between brothers in the shadow of illegitimate foreign occupation and hateful sectarianism, threatening a civil war."

Although Perino said the long-time allies have a close and cooperative relationship, she stressed that the Bush administration doesn’t agree with King Abdullah’s statement.

"When it comes to the coalition forces being in Iraq, we are there under the UN Security Council resolutions and at the invitation of the Iraqi people," she claimed.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also acknowledged that the Bush administration was "a little surprised to see those remarks" from King Abdullah and would seek clarification from the Saudis.

He suggested that the king’s comments might have been misinterpreted due to translation problems or could have been misreported by the media but stressed that the statement wouldn’t disrupt cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=13459

[cassiepriam]

1. I still think we have some play acting by the Saudis....

To impress their neighbors.

[MADem]

4. You don't cancel a state dinner that's been scheduled for eons to impress the neighbors

This is a serious issue.

[Flabbergasted]

6. Hadn't read that. Can I have the Link?

[MADem]

10. See post nine, below. They're treating Bush like plague. All of them. NT

[cassiepriam]

12. You do if your neighbors are the rest of the angry Mideast.

And your own people are angry and threatening to revolt.

You then cancel anything that connects you to the US.
The royal Saudis are not about to lose the throne because
of Bush. Behind the scenes they can make nice with Shrub.
But not in public.

[MADem]

15. It's deeper than that. It has to do with BushCo not using the forces in Iraq to shield the Sunni

from the Shi'a.

Which is understandable, given that the insurgents are doing a lot of hiding out amongst the Sunni.

They don't want to see him until late 08.

[cassiepriam]

16. Yes. All of this putting the Saudis in a spot politically?

They can have dinner in 09.

[madeline_con]

13. The House of Saud is extrememly unhappy at the prospect of

an Iranian inspired Shia neighbor to the north rousing their own rabble into deposing them.

[cassiepriam]

17. The House of Saud can always go to Argentina with Shrub.

When they lose their throne because they were stupid enough
to hook up with *.

[MADem]

2. The Saudis are mad because we aren't getting between the Shi'a and the Sunni

They don't want the Sunni killed wholesale, and that is happening to some extent.

A bunch of them were moved out of Kirkuk recently (unwillingly) that were moved IN there under Saddam when the Kurds were displaced from their homes.


Partition of Iraq is ahead. If they stay together in a loose federation, that'll be something.

If we were protecting the Sunni, we'd be fucking saviors. Since we aren't helping them out, we're goats.

Oh well.

[Flabbergasted]

5. Apparently there was a financial offering in the move?

[MADem]

11. Yeah, why are we seeing gas creeping back up to three bucks again?

So much for jawboning to turn on those spigots, eh?

[robinlynne]

3. no! Bush and the King are buds. Greg Palast explains, in Armed Madhouse,

how every step of the Iraq war was about the squaring off of two forces: the neocons on one side, and big oil on the other. It makes a lot of sense if you read his work!

[MADem]

9. They aren't anymore, though. Every regional leader is running like hell from him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032701761.html?sub=AR

Bush's Royal Trouble
Why Is King Abdullah Saying No to Dinner?



Now the White House ponders what Abdullah's sudden and sparsely explained cancellation of the dinner signifies. Nothing good -- especially for Condoleezza Rice's most important Middle East initiatives.....Abdullah's bowing out of the April 17 event is, in fact, one more warning sign that the Bush administration's downward spiral at home is undermining its ability to achieve its policy objectives abroad. Friends as well as foes see the need, or the chance, to distance themselves from the politically besieged Bush.

Official versions discount that possibility, of course. Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, flew to Washington last week to explain to Bush that April 17 posed a scheduling problem. ......But administration sources report that Bush and his senior advisers were not convinced by Bandar's vagueness -- especially since it followed Saudi decisions to seek common ground with Iran and the radicals of Hezbollah and Hamas instead of confronting them as part of Rice's proposed "realignment" of the Middle East into moderates and extremists.

Abdullah's reluctance to be seen socializing at the White House this spring reflects two related dynamics: a scampering back by the Saudis to their traditional caution in trying to balance regional forces, and their displeasure with negative U.S. reaction to their decision to return to co-opting or placating foes.

Abdullah gave a warm welcome to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Riyadh in early March, not long after the Saudis pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas into accepting a political accord that entrenches Hamas in an unwieldy coalition government with Abbas's Fatah.....don't count on Abdullah to put new force behind his long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative at the Arab summit scheduled this week in Riyadh.

Rice had hoped the summit would provide a boost in her current proximity talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, but she appears to have struck a dry well. "She is conducting crisis management, not grand diplomacy,".....Adds an admirer who tracks Rice's intentions and assessments in the Middle East: "Condi is doing everything she can. But she is dancing with a corpse that just keeps flopping over in another direction every time she tries to move it." ......the Saudis, too, know how to read election returns. They see Bush swimming against a tide of scandal and stench that engulfs his most trusted aides. In the traditional Saudi worldview, this is a moment to hedge, not to indulge in the kind of leadership needed to break the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock or the deadly morass of Iraq......Rice will get no relief when she returns to Washington. She will have to deal with more depressing society news: Jordan's King Abdullah, who has spent more time in George W. Bush's Washington than any other foreign leader, has let the White House know that he can't make that state visit discussed for September. Can you do 2008? the king asks instead.

[robinlynne]

18. I know. I thought the op was mentioning Cheney...

[MADem]

20. Yeah, but Cheney isn't the bud...he's just the butler, the messenger, the note carrier

He's got sufficient clout to be a messenger boy, but that's it. The "clout" in the US is held by Bush, not Cheney. But the House of Saud isn't stupid. They can read the papers, too, and they understand exactly what elections mean--which is why they don't have them.

They understand, like Barbara Boxer lectured, that elections have consequences. And one of those consequences is that BushCo can't get a dogcatcher to pick up a Blue, never mind a Yellow Dog in a Democratic district!

They're staying the hell away because he can't HELP them, and they don't want to be too closely associated with him. They understand the concept of a pariah, both in the nation and the world.

They might be a little naive, though, as to how the average schmuck on this side of the pond views them--those hand-holding pictures got plenty of play here, and it wasn't good play, either--it was 'icky' play. They might not realize how the public took it--most of the US didn't regard it as BushCo being "sensitive" to Saudi custom, they regarded it as his bending to the will of his oil masters.

It will not surprise me if a Democratic senator or two stops by say, enroute to Afghanistan, just to say "hey." Quietly, of course. Maybe even a Presidential candidate or three...or four. The House of Saud understands survival, and they realize that our futures are closely aligned. So long as they have oil, we'll be their mercenary army, sorta-kinda. They're also not so stupid that they'll hang on looking for love if they don't get any from us. They're very diversified at this stage of the game, both in terms of their assets and their friends. If they need bodies, well, Jordan is there for them. So is Egypt. So is Syria. And Palestine--say no more! They are heavily invested in those nations over the long term. Their biggest worry is controlling expenses--they've got some fat and lazy relatives who need to be turned out to work, because they can't continue to support this bloated bunch of well educated layabout-relatives--a first for them.

[Olney Blue]

7. Blame it on "translation" problems. Yeah, that will work.

[Flabbergasted]

8. Yeah ain't that silly.

[orpupilofnature57]

14. Bandar's Bros have it both way's ,hmmmmm

[JerseygirlCT]

19. And Saddam thought he and Rumsfeld were buds, too

Something about politics and strange bedfellows?

Or more like two creeps with absolutely no integrity... that's what happens.

[MADem]

21. Arabs are well advised to eschew neckties--they did nothing for Saddam, did they? NT

[sampsonblk]

22. They ARE. Grain of salt needed

This could very well be a PR ploy. Cheney just made an trip there not long ago. Very unusual. I see red flags on this one. When the going gets rough, these devils stick together like glue.