At no point in that country's history have their wars actually involved the Saudis fighting. Saudi involvement in the wars against Israel largely amounted to funding Jordanian military ventures. Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Iran-Iraq war was in moneying Saddam - and then having the US protect Saudi shipping. It was much the same in the Gulf War, when the Saudis declared war on Iraq - and then handed the entire thing over to the US to do the actual fighting for them.

The Saudi military is a joke; the entire air force is laughable because the only people allowed to be pilots are members of the royal family; the Saudis have more fighter jets than they do fighter pilots. And they keep buying more. The Saudi army is similarly tiny, and its main course of training is harassing women who aren't wearing state-approved socks.

Saudi Arabia wants war with Iran. More specifically they want the US to fight Iran. Incidentally so does Israel. Given that the US's two "allies" in the region are clamoring for "Let's you and him fight!" and the US presidency might be in danger of shifting to a guy who will be as easy to manipulate as modeling clay, it's not looking like a great time to be living in Iran.

I really hope anyone who really wants to be educated about what's going on in Syria will take the few moments to read this.

Here's another snip:

Salafism both of the Saudi, and the of radical, orientation are being fired-up in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon [8], Egypt, north Africa, the Sahara, Nigeria, and the horn of Africa. No wonder Russia is concerned: Central Asia [9] is unlikely to prove immune either. Its leaders do recall, only too well, the impact on Russia's backyard, of that earlier "stirring" associated with Afghanistan.

They find it difficult to understand how Europeans can again "look aside" from what is occurring for the transient domestic "pleasures" of been seen to "take-down dictators", when this new radical stirring across the Middle East, Africa and tentatively Central Asia, is happening right on Europe's own doorstep - just across the Mediterranean.

snip

Syria has become the crucible of these external coercions; with events in Syria [12] being defined by this hugely potent deployed Gulf power for the purpose of building their "new Middle East"; rather than being defined by some over-simplistic narrative of reform versus repression, which sheers Syria away from its all-important context.

Many Syrians see the struggle now not so much as one of reform - though all Syrians want that - but now as a more primordial, elemental fight to preserve the notion of Syria itself, a deep-rooted self-identity amidst fears that touch on the most sensitive, inflamed nerves within the Islamic world. Not surprisingly for many, security now trumps reform.



A huge K&R.

"The region already exists in a state of low intensity war: Saudi Arabia and Qatar, bolstered by Turkey and the West, seem ready to stop at nothing to violently overthrow a fellow Arab head of state, President Bashar al-Assad - and to do whatever they can to hurt Iran."

I have two questions, Isn't Assad the person responsible for most of the violence in Syria and what is our country's role in his ouster. It would seem like a good ideal for him to leave office but I do not expect anyone better will take his place.

I plan on reading the whole article but any context would help.

That's a huge part of the problem.

Its not clear at all that the region would be better served with Assad gone. A good deal of his own people really do support him. The (Shia) Iranian position is only hardening as this sectarian civil war between Shia and Sunni Islam grows - the overthrow or assassination of (Shia) Assad will only make them more ferocious. Iran has already threatened Israel is Assad is harmed or removed - that won't end well.

We are providing support and arms to the Saudi and Qatar elements (the Salafists/Sunnis) who are the "rebels". The Sunni/Salafist rebels (who are also an ill-defined group) appear to be trying to make this conflict look like an Arab Spring type of revolution. Its not. Far from it. Its a crucial nexus of religious sectarianism bordering Israel.

I did not realize that Assad was Shia in a Sunni country. I also noted after doing a little googling that Assad's father and Saddam Hussein were both members of the Ba'ath Party.