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Re: Saudi Snub

Reply #15 –
Good to see the Saudis are helping to challenge the simplistic notion that Sunnis are good and Shiites are bad.  That notion is easy to accept as the Ayatollahs tend to wear black and the Saudis wear white.  That makes it easy to figure out who are the good guys and who are the villains ...

But things aren't that simple.  ISIS and al Qaeda are Sunni groups and the Saudis are devoted to Wahhabism.  The Saudis are brutal.  We are revolted by ISIS beheading westerners, yet beheading is the national sport in Saudi Arabia.  Islamic fundamentalists are funded from within the Kingdom and the families of victims of 9/11 want to sue over Saudi Arabian support for the attack.

That's not to say the Iranians are saints.  They fund terrorists too.  But let's not be sucked in by the US painting this as a black and white situation.  Trump going all in on Team Wahhabi shows he lacks any subtlety when it comes to geopolitics.
 

Re: Saudi Snub

Reply #16 –
Ive been thinking about the broader scheme of all this stuff.

According to this meaty article:
http://dieoff.org/page140.htm

We are generally finding less new oil than we are using as of 2010.  What does this mean for us moving forward?? Generally, power shift.  The arab nations have enjoyed the influence and power that comes with owning the resources in the middle east, and its starting to dwindle.  This might be what the birth of terrorism is all about.  I tend to look at state sponsored terrorism more skeptically than most.

I have yet to meet anyone that takes action for no good reason.  The motivation of gains are generally driven by the same constants over time.  Fiscal/Power.  Everything else is a smokescreen.  This isnt about Religion IMHO.  The oil reserves are depleting at a faster rate than they are filling, and we are starting to look at non traditional methods of getting it in places where it was much more difficult to get than ever before.

That tells me everything we need to know about where it is going.  The emergence of Tesla is also not a coincidence.  Those cars show that powered vehicles are the way forward.

What does this mean??  Get ready for much more instability and war, returning to what it has always been about.  Money and Power shift.  The hard part to figure out is who has the power, but consider this for a moment.  USA and the Saudis are effectively the major players in terms of power in the middle east.  To give everyone an idea of just how deep and historically powerful, look at the creation of the modern Israeli state.  They have their way of establishing power.   I have no doubt that this has as much to do with "regime change" as anything else.  I wasnt surprised to find Iraq once was a major player in the oil world.  no longer.  I wonder why...
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: Saudi Snub

Reply #17 –
Save that when the oil dries up or is displaced by renewables, power in the Middle East becomes irrelevant.  African countries which don't have oil are fairly irrelevant geopolitically.  Imagine the Middle East in 10 or 20 years when oil revenue has collapsed. 

That's why Obama was trying to pivot to Asia as that's going to be the scene of the US v China battle for supremacy.

The Syrian conflagration, however, unleashed a flood of refugees on Europe and that highlighted another problem that the Middle East poses to the West.  The flood of refugees will intensify as oil revenue collapses.  Saudi Arabia is able to keep its citizens fairly happy as oil revenue provides an economic safety net for the people.  What happens when that disappears?  Will it result in internal fighting over smaller resources or will it intensify hostility towards the West?

Remember also that Russia depends on oil and gas exports too.  If the market for oil collapses, economic hardship might lead to Russian aggression and expansionism.

Re: Saudi Snub

Reply #18 –
Saudi companies are behind the purchase and shelving of many alternative fuel/energy technologies, the smart Saudi's are all set to exhaust the oil then release the viable replacements.

They have bought up large long term mining leases in WA, that hold minerals and metals required for some of these new technologies and they are not required to immediately develop them.

It's almost as bad as Victoria apparently/allegedly selling it's resource soul to Gina Rinehart!

Deep pockets, very very hard to compete with them!
"Extremists on either side will always meet in the Middle!"