Prisoners of the Saudis

Yes, Barack Obama will shorten a historic and strategic visit to India for a salaam now on this Tuesday, visiting the strategic ally of the USA, Saudi Arabia, which, with the death of King Abdullah at the age of 90 on Jan. 23, is now governed by the big boy Salman, at age 79.

In the words of sober Ross Douhat, one of two conservative columnists on duty at The New York Times, Americans are handcuffed to this cruel ally. Ok, it’s a figure of speech, but literally, as shown by photos, they bow to the desert despot. Saudi Arabia is number one on the planet in exporting petroleum and beheading criminals.

I don’t like wasting letters on obvious indignation. In any case … Saudi Arabia, which punishes dissidents such as Raif Badawi with lashes, does not receive vigorous diplomatic lashes from the West, which claims to defend human rights. I won’t repeat here the Saudi record. It’s the oil, stupid! It’s the threat of Islamic terror, stupid! It’s the occupation of the geopolitical space by Shiite Iran, stupid!

I find Douhat’s melancholy observation interesting: Three consecutive American presidents — Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama — tried to redesign the geopolitical map of the Middle East so that alliances with despotic regimes would not be either inevitable or necessary.

And they all failed. I recommend reading Douhat’s observations in the article which is justly titled “Prisoners of the Saudis.”

Dead king, appointed king … the Saudi nightmare — ours, that of the Americans and of the Saudis themselves — is far from ending. It could have a long life.