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WHY WE INVADED IRAQ (AND LEFT SAUDI ARABIA)

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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 10:55 AM
Original message
WHY WE INVADED IRAQ (AND LEFT SAUDI ARABIA)
Edited on Thu Aug-28-03 11:04 AM by FlashHarry
(Reposted from another thread)

Ok, bear with me. Saudi Arabia sits on the worlds largest oil reserves, Iraq on the second largest. Saudi Arabia is ruled by the Saud family, which is widely viewed by the people as corrupt and sybaritic--in addition to having been installed by the infidel British after WWI. Saudi Arabia is also home to Wahabi'ist Islam--a particularly nasty form of fundamentalist Islam that is subscribed to by Al Qaeda, Ansar-al-Islam and others. Saudi Arabia is also the funding source of many virulently anti-western madrassas in Pakistan, The UK and other places.

All-in-all, SA is a very unstable place that is looking more and more like Iran in 1978. I think that the whole PNAC crowd fears a revolution is imminent in Saudi Arabia. Think about it. What would be more frightening to the Oil folks than the Islamic Republic of Arabia?

So, what do we do? Well, we invade Iraq, who, thanks to 12 years of sanctions and a convenient bad guy at the helm, is an easy and easily justifiable target (so we thought). What do we get? Well, we get control of the world's 2nd largest oil reserves and a bulwark against encroaching Islamic fundamentalism--AND we can finally wash our hand of the moribund Saud family.

Questions? Comments? Or am I just being amazingly obvious?

Edited for a more provocative headline....
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wtmusic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:15 AM
Response to Original message
1. Saudia Arabia is just down the road
The demonizing process has already started. I give it five years.
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ET Awful Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:58 AM
Response to Reply #1
7. Invading Saudi Arabia
Would be tantamount to actually declaring war on Islam.

You think terrorism is a problem now? Wait until someone is stupid enough to actually invade the country that contains Mecca and Medina.

EVERY muslim throughout the world would take umbrage at that, and you would see a jihad of proportions that are beyond "biblical" or "epic".
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dutchdemocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:17 AM
Response to Original message
2. Excellent perception
I think that, with the links of the Bush Cartel to the Bin Ladens that there must have been some back room dealing on this one.

Saudis take some heat for 9-11 in exchange for troop pullout to help sedate the Wahabi resistance.

The Saudis had no great love for Saddam's secular state at any rate. No love lost there.

Bush, Cheney, Oil, Money, Greed, Bin Ladens... tied together like a farking sky diving team tangled up en route to earth...

Let's hope.
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Wwagsthedog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:17 AM
Response to Original message
3. Saudi Arabia
Rather than input opinions and hearsay, why don't you do a simple google on Saudi Arabia so you can get your facts straight. Here is a bit of help:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22saudi+arabia%22&btnG=Google+Search

Please don't interpert my post to agree or disagree with what the USA is doing v/v the Saudis.
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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #3
11. Actually, it is opinion
Edited on Thu Aug-28-03 12:44 PM by FlashHarry
I was merely positing a theory. Anyone should feel free to disagree. On edit: Which facts didn't I 'get straight,' by the way? Just curious.
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sujan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:33 AM
Response to Original message
4. invade S. Arabia
Edited on Thu Aug-28-03 11:34 AM by sujan
and wait for the official declaration of Jihad by the muslim populace around the world, which spells trouble...vietnam proved when you fight against organized human beings with organized modern technology, the human being win.

Imagine that in a larger scale. Provocations like that will surely bring forth a humanitarian disaster of appalling degree.
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:43 AM
Response to Original message
5. Sudi's have $7TT invested in the US.
They gave us the eviction notice as soon as we had secured Iraq's airfields.

They may be a future target, but I suspect that they are ready to declare economic war on the US by dumping their USD if we make overt moves on the Kingdom. Thank the Bush/Republican Party for this mess.
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Kbowe Donating Member (272 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Just wain until they start divesting....
You think our economy is bad now. Las Vegas will surely go under if they stop going there.
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Brian Sweat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. What is $7TT
Is that supposed to be $7 trillion? Got proof?
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:52 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Wish I did....
I'm pretty sure I got the factoid off the DU and it resonated with me because this would explain a whole bunch as to why this administration seems to pander to SA interests. If it's wrong, I'll gladly apologize, but I suspect that it's accurate.
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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. This mentions $750bn.
Edited on Thu Aug-28-03 12:57 PM by FlashHarry
BBC News

On edit: So does this

<snip>
his threat comes as foreign investment in the US dries up because of business scandals, lower corporate earnings and the collapse of the technology boom. According to government figures, foreigners put $124 billion into the US last year, down from $301 billion in 2000.

Economists say the reluctance of wealthy outsiders to expand their business interests in America is a major threat to the world's largest economy.

Saudi investors have $750 billion in the US. A mass walkout would seriously impede the US's attempts to pull away from recession.
</snip>
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Brian Sweat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:59 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. $750 billion is a more reasonable number,
but still hard to believe considering the annual GDP of Saudi Arabia is only $250 billion.
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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 01:05 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. You mean the officially reported annual GDP?
Who knows what the real thing is. Plus, the $750bn, could be a figure that has accrued over the last 25 years.
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 08:05 PM
Response to Reply #14
18. Well, I have to apologize for putting out unsubstaniated numbers.
I've done some searching for the threads that I thought referred to this # and I can't locate. I guess it does appear high in retrospect, but I assumed this was aggregated oil revenue investments thay had appreaciated in value since the 70s....
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MaverickX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 11:49 AM
Response to Original message
6. Saudi Arabia..
Wasn't in violation of UN disarmament resolutions.
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never cry wolf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 12:35 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. But Israel is the record holder
for being in violation of UN resolutions, both in quantity and length of time. Israel also had as much to do with 9-11 in funding and manpower (ignoring some conspiracy theories) as Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia.

By the way, Saudi Arabia has the largest KNOWN oil reserved identified. Iraq is believed to have a vast amount of oil as yet undiscovered that would easily vault it's reserves above SAs.
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FlashHarry Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 03:31 PM
Response to Reply #10
17. I read somewhere that Canada may actually have the largest.
Who knows? We do know that there's plenty of 'Saudi Soda,' Kuwaiti Kool-Aid' and 'Persian Perrier' over there. (My apologies to SNL's 'Bel Aire-abs' skit.)
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MaverickX Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 02:50 PM
Response to Reply #10
19. oh Lord...
Any evidence Israel was involved in 9-11?
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Aidoneus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #19
24. did you actually read his post?
it is subtle, but try it again..

Israel also had as much to do with 9-11 in funding and manpower (ignoring some conspiracy theories) as Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia.
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greatauntoftriplets Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Aug-28-03 01:12 PM
Response to Original message
16. That is what I concluded in the fall of 2002.
It was about oil and real estate.
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jos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 02:53 PM
Response to Original message
20. Wolfowitz admitted as much
a while back. That this was one of the reasons for the war. It strikes me as plausible, but only one of several reasons, none of which had to with WMD or Sadaam Hussein.
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Aidoneus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 04:15 PM
Response to Original message
21. Saudi Arabia is already conquered territory
invading it again would just shatter the dependent client state set up across decades.
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Aidoneus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. sorry, dupe post..
received one of the strange error messages first time, didn't think it posted.
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Aidoneus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-03 04:15 PM
Response to Original message
22. Saudi Arabia is already conquered territory
invading it again would just shatter the dependent client state set up across decades.
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