Thursday’s reports of the US intending to send “up to 500” ground troops to Saudi Arabia was confirmed by the Saudi state media. Saudi King Salman has signed off on the plan, saying he believes it would “boost regional security and stability.”
The reports would put the US ground troops is the desert outside
the capital of Riyadh, by the Prince Sultan Airbase. US officials were
presenting this primarily as another deployment related to tensions with
Iran.
So long as it is couched as a move against Iran, Saudi officials are all
for it. Yet historically, letting ground troops from non-Muslim
countries base in the Muslim holy land has been a big problem for Saudi
Arabia, inflaming Islamist groups.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was very public about his objection to
US troops in Saudi Arabia, saying that was a driving reason for the 9/11
attack. The US largely removed its troops from Saudi Arabia in the
early years of the global war on terror, and this week’s announcement
marks the start of a new process of putting US troops back there.
The Saudi leaders – Defenders of the Faith – are in it for the money. Islam? In private, the old rascals laugh aloud.
Right, what could happen….
Blowback has been removed from the dictionary by the neocons….therefore, it can never happen. (Not that I actually believe the 9-11 story in any way, shape, or form).
Wait until the number of US troops in Saudi Arabia balloons to a couple hundred thousand. Because that’s what’s going to happen.
The US needs at least a hundred thousand troops to start a war with Iran, because the US is going to have to put thousands of troops on the Iranian coast to even have a remote chance of stopping Iran controlling the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz.
And there’s no way any other country in the region, with the sole except of the UAE (and maybe one of the ‘stans) will consider hosting US troops against Iran, because those countries don’t dislike Iran enough to allow themselves to be a target of Iranian missiles and also because some of them, like Iraq, are run by parties favorable to Iran or have large Shia populations.
So only Saudi Arabia has the capacity to host the number of US forces needed to conduct a war with Iran which is why that’s where US troops were stationed in 1991. Any “consequences” for US troops or future terrorist attacks against the US as a result are irrelevant. No one in power in the US cares about that. For them, 9/11 was an event they could use to further their agenda, nothing more.
Okay, Islamists, you know what you’ve got to do: Khobal Towers 2.0. Get ‘er done.
Geee…. Deja Vu all over again. Wonder who the new Osama bin Laden will turn out to be. These people are [expletive deleted] transparent.