Will Mideast allies drag us into war?

Patrick J. Buchanan About | Email | Archive

 

The New Year’s execution by Saudi Arabia of the Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a deliberate provocation.  Its first purpose: Signal the new ruthlessness and resolve of the Saudi monarchy where the power behind the throne is the octogenarian King Salman’s son, the 30-year-old Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.

Second, crystallize, widen and deepen a national-religious divide between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Riyadh and Tehran.

Third, rupture the rapprochement between Iran and the United States and abort the Iranian nuclear deal.  The provocation succeeded in its near-term goal. An Iranian mob gutted and burned the Saudi embassy, causing diplomats to flee and Riyadh to sever diplomatic ties.  From Baghdad to Bahrain, Shiites protested the execution of a cleric who, while a severe critic of Saudi despotism and a champion of Shiite rights, was not convicted of inciting revolution or terror........Read more at ......

My Take - It seems to me there are some fundamental realities we're not hearing about.

• One: Since WWI it was clear the world needed massive amounts of oil. 
• Two: The Middle East has it.  
• Three: After WWII the world's economy and security has been based on the Bretton Woods agreement and it seems to me support of the Saudis was part of that package.  
• Four: We're coming to an end of Bretton Woods.  We can't afford it any longer and within five years we will be seeing an international withdrawal except in the case of very real American interests. 
• Five: The rest of the world is going to be on their own, militarily and economically more and more over the next 25 years. 
• Six:  By 2030 the world we know now will not exist.  Demographics and economics will devastate everyone, including the U.S., but unless the U.S. destroys itself by becoming subordinate to the United Nations it will recover economically. 
• Seven: We can and will pump all the oil we can ever need while the rest of the world goes begging to the Saudis. 
• Eight: Economics will be a hard game for all of them, and no matter the games they're playing now - China, Russia and Europe are doomed.
• Nine: Get over and move on!