Hope they stand firm on this.

I was wondering why there was a change of mind, and that Condi is rushing off to Israel.. now we know, the Saudis snap their fingers and Bush jumps.

Craig Unger nailed it in his book House of Bush House of Saud (parts of which were also featured in Farenheit 9-11). What does Barbara Bush call Bandar, ah yes, Bandar Bush, and then there is the kissy kissy hand holding of Dubya and Abdullah, and in the last week Bush finally got his Republican controlled congress to give the ports contract to Dubai via Oman.

Yet Conservatives continue to live in denial.

Posted by: Nariz at July 23, 2006 5:37 PM

Nariz: Not necessarily in denial, some of us are just morbidly embarrassed.

Posted by: Concerned Citizen at July 23, 2006 6:07 PM

the kissy kissy hand holding of Dubya and Abdullah.

That was disgusting,to see an America President holding hands with a rag-doll.Thought he was a mans,man from Texis?looked more like brokeback bush,to me.

Posted by: Patriot8 at July 23, 2006 6:07 PM

'texas

Posted by: Patriot8 at July 23, 2006 6:08 PM

Go IDF, get 'em while you can.

Posted by: Carolyn2 at July 23, 2006 6:35 PM

now we know, the Saudis snap their fingers and Bush jumps.

Posted by: Nariz at July 23, 2006 05:37 PM

Given Dubya's low IQ, which has been exploited by Jihadi CAIR, Islamic Jihad and other Islamic organizations, and given Dubya's total corruption in Saudi Oil. Heck, he has opened doors to criminals, then turning them legal, just to pander to rich businesses. I.e. American citizenship, American law, be damned!

Thru his corruption and timidity, Dubya is endangering America, lives of Americans and America's future. Predictibly, Condi 'benevolence-in-the-heart-of-Islam' Rice and KAren 'head-scarf' Hughes are dancing to corrupt Dubya tune,but like they say..

Fish starts rotting in the head!

Posted by: Alert at July 23, 2006 6:58 PM

Are my rheumy eyes reading it correctly? The Saudis concerned about death. We must surely be approaching a time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.

Posted by: Salad_In at July 23, 2006 7:00 PM

Hmmmm...I would think the Saudi's are running scared. They may be afraid they're next. They sure wouldn't want ANYTHING to disrupt their decadent lifestyle.

Posted by: freewoman at July 23, 2006 7:15 PM

Bush's fondest love, after cheap illegal immigrant labor, which labor is far from cheap, is rich oil sheiks and kings.

Go figure. What greater conflict, hath no man.

Posted by: Layer Seven at July 23, 2006 7:58 PM

By directing their request to the US, the Saudis are saying: Please don't make us be the bad guy.

The strategic silence or near-silence of several Arab states alleged to be allies of the US at the moment enables them to avoid going on record in support of Hizballah, and thus being labeled as state sponsors of terrorism, and jeopardizing the appearance of being friendly to the West.

However, the lack of outcry from governments in the region has not played well on the "Arab Street," as a cleric in Damascus remarked last Friday: "Our Arab people have been surprised by our Arab leaders who have ignored what is being said on the streets."

An example of "what is being said," from Yemen:

The crowd called for Arab governments to declare Jihad and remove all borders in order to defend their brothers in Lebanon and Palestine. Demonstrators carried placards with slogans denouncing Arab leaders’ silence towards what they described as Israeli arrogance. They were chanting, "Arab leaders, the reason is the dollar".

In that atmosphere, even the earlier, tepid response from Riyadh-- cautioning against "uncalculated misadventures" while not even mentioning Hizballah by name -- has the
Saudis in quite an awkward situation, in a region already so preoccupied with honor, appearances, and "saving face."

Having to take any more decisive a position would either alienate the West (who, heaven forbid, might do something about their dependence on oil), or cause further divisions between Arab countries, and between citizens and their government. The immediate result is that those divisions render the Arab world that much more impotent while Israel seems (hopefully) determined to put an end to Hizballah. In the long run, those same divisions could threaten the regimes of the house of Saud and others, who would then have to actually deal with the fruits of the fundamentalist movements they have allowed to flourish over the years.

Thus, if the US would just see fit to tell Russia to tell Iran to tell Syria and Hizballah to tone it down a bit (and maybe try to sell the cease-fire to Israel, while they're at it), it would sure take the heat off of Riyadh, among other places.

But why should that happen? One hopes that the US will indeed stand firm, and tell the Saudis, (perhaps through a similar set of intermediaries, just to drive home the point) that they'll have to do it themselves.

Posted by: MarisolJW at July 23, 2006 8:02 PM

Maybe he's worried about Saudi Arabia's tourist prospects. Though I think the rules themselves would keep a lot of people away.

http://travel.canoe.ca/Travel/News/2006/07/09/1676009-ap.html

"there'll be no alcohol, and no eating in public from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan. Women are to be covered from head to toe, and any woman under 40 must be accompanied by a male relative"

"All female tourists will be required to dress according to Saudi tradition: covered from head to toe with only their face, hands and feet exposed. And in the most conservative city, the capital Riyadh, women must wear a black robe over their clothes.

If tourists choose to travel during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, they will not be allowed to eat or drink in public during fasting hours.

One other thing visitors won't be able to do is tour Islam's most holy sites, including the cities Mecca and Medina. They are off limits to non-Muslims."

Posted by: non-redneck at July 23, 2006 8:26 PM

The only thing a cease fire at this point would accomplish would be to allow Hezbolla to rearm, resupply, and regroup. That is exactly what the North Vietmanese did during Nixon's stupid bombing halts.

Posted by: Pelayo at July 23, 2006 8:36 PM

Why take this remark at face value? Why not instead imagine a little conversation in camera, during which Abdullah tells Bush that "you know outside, I'm going to have to say that I called for a ceasefire, and you why. But don't let that surprise you -- I have an audience too, and not all of them understand quite why I, and Mubarak, and Abdullah of Jordan, are not exactly depressed, whatever we say, to see Hezbollah put in its place. Of course, don't misunderstand that we want Israel punished and weakened, but not right now, and not just yet.

Bush will not need to reply. But he does need to be thinking to himself, or others in Washington need to be thinking:

Uh-huh. And if you think we are going to take care of Iran for you without all kinds of quid-pro-quos, you have another think coming. Starting with having you make the non-Muslim Muslims, those Alawites in Syria, tremble as you threaten them that every Saudi-funded Arabic-language newspaper, radio and television station, and journalist on the take, is going to start publishing or broadcasting stories about the non-Muslim Alawites, and their beliefs, and practices, until no Alawites in Syria will be able to sleep at night. You, Abdullah, must explain to the optomestrist that in Syria the clock can be "turned back" as it has been in Lebanon, back to the pre-Hama days, the days of the massacre of military cadets in Homs, and don't think the Shi'a of Iran., awarding you honorary Islamness, can rescue you from the Sunnis in Syria."

But first, someone will have to take the President and Rice and others aside and explain, as has never been explained before, who the Alawites are, what they are all about, what they most fear and fear with reason, and how they can be persuaded to turn inward, to shore up their own position, and to cease to think they can win their "Islamic" spurs by allowing Sunni Arabs to go from Syria to Iraq, and by allowing Shi'a weapons and agents to go from Iran to Lebanon. That's over. That must be over. For otherwise it is the Alawites themselves, and not merely this or that leader, who will be thrown over -- look what happened to one group of Muslims in Iraq, now in thrall to another group of Muslims. What would the real Muslims do to the Alawites?

Saudi Arabia knows. The American government, by reading postings at JW on this subject, at long last is beginning to know (no thanks to the likes of Edward Djerijian and other useless and clueless ambassadors). And of course the Syrians -- Alawites, Christians, and Sunni Muslims -- in Syria all know.

Fun to imagine.

Posted by: Hugh at July 23, 2006 9:14 PM

Bush and company have been called to the mat by their masters - who is surprised?

It certainly isn't for the reasons as outlined in the story above. The Saud's don't want Hezbollah to gain face for it's actions in Lebanon and they also fear Iran's expanding influence.

We will never know exactly what the true nature of the meeting and letter was.

I am still waiting for Muslims to start protesting the deaths of thousands of innocent Muslins in Iraq at the hands of fellow Muslims.

Should I hold my breath?

Jet

Posted by: blazar-jet at July 23, 2006 9:27 PM

Israel is approaching this wrongly. They're only destroying and radicalizing Lebanon, a non-fundamentalist country that was healing and heading towards true democracy.

They should have done the prisoner swap with Hezbollah, and after that use terrorist techniques to kill the entire Hezbollah leadership in Beirut.

Posted by: george_rem at July 23, 2006 10:23 PM

The Saudi leadership may not be motivated by a desire to protect Hezbollah. They are evidently less sympathetic to Hezbollah than their citizens are, and that is a political problem for them. So they may need to go through the motions of trying to halt the IDF attack for the sake of appearances. We know that in the Arab world there is often one set of pronouncements for Western consumption and another for Arab consumption. My guess is that this is for Arab consumption. The fact that these governments were recently criticizing Hezbollah rather than vigorously denounced Israel seems telling to me, but it may have been a political mistake.

That isn't to say that any of these governments is a real friend to us, just that in this case, our interest in the destruction of Hezbollah may align with their interest in the curbing of Iranian influence. But the momentary seeming alignment of interests is probably only skin deep.

Posted by: Dhimmisoftheworldunite at July 23, 2006 10:26 PM

"Israel is approaching this wrongly. They're only destroying and radicalizing Lebanon, a non-fundamentalist country that was healing and heading towards true democracy."
-- from a posting above

The non-Shi'a Lebanese, particularly the Christians, were averting their eyes from the creation, under their very eyes (if non-averted), of an army, an army that possessed between 12,000 and 15,000 missiles, more than many European countries, and much other weaponry to boot. What did they think was going to happen? Nothing? Did they think they could build up Beirut, and the Shi'a in what was once Fatahland, and then steadily became Hezbollahland, would do notning, either at the behest of Iran or Syria or both, or at the behest of nothing but their own natural and unstoppable inclinations?

The Christians of Lebanon in particular were living in a fool's paradise. All that talk of a Cedars Revolution, and "democracy," showed people getting caught up in a media event that, if one thought carefully, was dangerous for those Maronites. For the only way Christian power in Lebanon can be maintained, and not further eroded, is if the old confessional arrangmeent as to power-sharing is maintained. There is a good reason why no census has been taken in more than 60 years, and every Maronite and other Christian knows it.

It is good to clear the air. The Israelis, if they are successful, may give the Christians, the Druse, and even the slightly more presentable Sunni Muslims, the excuse they need to disarm Hezbollah. The rest -- keeping the Shi'a of Hezbollah from obtaining power, keeping them out of the government, and above all making sure that they do not increase in numbers (and pushing some of them out, possibly to the new, improved, Shi'a-ruled Iraq, to be replaced by Arabic-speaking Christians who may no longer be able to live in Iraq, and even resettling many of them in the south as a human barrier to create an environment that will ensure Israel need never again bomb roads and bridges as well as Hezbvollah sites, in Lebanon, is an idea that needs to be carefully considered. For on it will depend the re-Christianization of Lebanon, or at least, the establishment of a new arrangement in Lebanon that will make the country able to retain its historic role as the last real refuge of Christians in the Middle East -- refuge, of course, not from Israel, which as the Bishop of Beirut, Moubarac, noted in 1947, is the natural ally of the Christians of Lebnaon, but from the circumambient and always dangerous Muslims.

Posted by: Hugh at July 23, 2006 11:38 PM

George Bush to the rescue!

Posted by: Shy Guy at July 24, 2006 1:38 AM

"George Bush to the rescue!"

"The United States has approved the sale of $6 billion of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

The sale includes helicopters, armored vehicles and communications systems and is the largest Saudi arms purchase in 10 years."

That is kust the beginning.

Watch as the Gulf states go on a spending spree to rearm and retool to protect themselves from the wolf in their midst, Iran and Iraq.

Notice how the USA is standing back?

Jet

Posted by: blazar-jet at July 24, 2006 2:27 AM

"George Bush to the rescue!"

"The United States has approved the sale of $6 billion of military equipment to Saudi Arabia.

The sale includes helicopters, armored vehicles and communications systems and is the largest Saudi arms purchase in 10 years."

That is kust the beginning.

Watch as the Gulf states go on a spending spree to rearm and retool to protect themselves from the wolf in their midst, Iran and Iraq.

Notice how the USA is standing back?

Jet

Posted by: blazar-jet at July 24, 2006 2:27 AM

Saudi Arabia asked President Bush on Sunday to intervene in Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon to stop the mounting deaths.

Intervene to save Hezbollah, who killed 241 Marines? And, heaven help us, watch as we do it. Unbelievable.

Posted by: special_guest at July 24, 2006 4:18 AM

Hugh said

The American government, by reading postings at JW on this subject, at long last is beginning to know

I saw John Bolton speaking about jihad the other day, and sure enough, it sounded like he was a regular JW reader. Even started to get my hopes up a bit. But then I saw that Condoleeza Rice is the one leading the delegation to the Middle East, and it reaffirmed, for me, that any optimism was misplaced.

Posted by: special_guest at July 24, 2006 4:31 AM

What's happening here with the absurd "proportionality" talk is that jihad war should be accepted by its intended vicitms. Jihadis elected into governments. Tribal royals funding Jihadis. Matahir's shocking farewell speech in Indonesia. A Jihadi firebrand running Iran. Jihadis operating openly in the salons and academies of Europe, Canada, America, NZ, and even Oz. Hell, we even got a copy of the Koran in the White House library now.

610 * 623 * 732* 1066* 1215 * 1453 * 1492 * 1683 * 1928 * 1938 * 1948 * 1996 * 2001

As perpetual jihad terror war becomes more accepted by its targets, so too must the concept that what a population lets exist among it shall bar the full brunt of retribution, as if it were all of them, not just the Moslem activists operating among them.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at July 24, 2006 6:59 AM

Intervene to save Hezbollah, who killed 241 Marines? And, heaven help us, watch as we do it. Unbelievable.

Posted by: special_guest at July 24, 2006 04:18 AM

.. and one wonders.. how corrupt is Dubya to rescue Marine-killers. Does this not qualify as an imeachable-offence (in addition to legalizing illegal-immigration, stiffiling 9/11 commission and calling off Bin-Laden search unit)?

Posted by: Alert at July 24, 2006 1:28 PM