Gates: Saudis want to fight Iran to the last American

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Quote:
Source: Foreign Policy

Gates: Saudis want to fight Iran to the last American
Posted By Marc Lynch Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - 12:12 PM Share

"The Saudis always want to fight Iranians to the last American" and it is "time for them to get in the game," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates tells the French Foreign Minister in a newly released cable from February 2010. This captures perfectly the point I made yesterday about how to read the reporting in these cables about the private hawkishness of Arab leaders. The question of Arabs and Iran was never an information problem -- it's an analysis problem. The antipathy which many of these leaders feel for Iran has long been well known. But so has their reluctance to do anything about it. And so have the internal divisions within Arab governments and Gulf ruling families, and their deep fears of either Iranian retaliation or popular upheaval, and their bottomless hunger for U.S. weapons systems, and their hopes that the U.S. would magically solve their problems for them, and the disconnect between the Palaces and the public.

Iran hawks have been gloating that the quotes from a few Arab leaders in the initial cable release vindicate their analysis and discredit skeptics of military action against Iran. It doesn't. Gates' comment about the Saudis needing to "get into the game" came almost two years after King Abdullah's now-famous "cut off the head of the snake" comment. And another cable from January 2008 shows Abdullah telling Sarkozy that Saudi Arabia "does not want to inflame the situation", recommends "continued international engagement" with Iran and "is not yet ready to take any action besides diplomacy". Maybe, just maybe, those private remarks weren't actually a very reliable guide to what the Saudis will really do in public?

The way the Iran hawks have been leaping at a few juicy quotes while ignoring all the well-known context only shows the ongoing poverty of their analysis. I would expect better from the serious analysts on the hawkish side, but, well, there you are.
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This article highlights the importance of a proper interpretation of the cables released. Knee jerk responses accusing a cable such as this, for example, as supporting the war on Iran is to lack the deeper understanding and nuance of the information being communicated.

Rather, I suggest, it shows that the Saudis view US as its merceneries, and that they are not friends of the US. I can't help remembering the plane that whisked the Saudis home, right after 9/11.

reply to post by wcitizen

This article highlights the importance of a proper interpretation of the cables released. Knee jerk responses accusing a cable such as this, for example, as supporting the war on Iran is to lack the deeper understanding and nuance of the information being communicated.

Rather, I suggest, it shows that the Saudis view US as its merceneries, and that they are not friends of the US. I can't help remembering the plane that whisked the Saudis home, right after 9/11.

SA is a bit like the US..
If the people of both countries woke up and saw what their leaders were doing to them,
they would revolt....IMO...

Originally posted by wcitizen
Rather, I suggest, it shows that the Saudis view US as its merceneries, and that they are not friends of the US. I can't help remembering the plane that whisked the Saudis home, right after 9/11.

Erm....What people are forgetting is that Saudi Arabia owns America. Without the money the Saudi gives in order to prop up america, the US would be far from a super power.

Can anyone show me these cables where these Arabs are so upset. I see the news articles but not the cables. Could be a lie for all I know

Originally posted by wcitizen

Rather, I suggest, it shows that the Saudis view US as its merceneries, and that they are not friends of the US.

Indeed! Great post wcitizen! However, the Saudis will only be 'protected' so long as the oil flows. It's a friendship of mutual convenience... nothing more.

IRM

Originally posted by InfaRedMan

Originally posted by wcitizen

Rather, I suggest, it shows that the Saudis view US as its merceneries, and that they are not friends of the US.

Indeed! Great post wcitizen! However, the Saudis will only be 'protected' so long as the oil flows. It's a friendship of mutual convenience... nothing more.

IRM

Yes, and the US servicemen and women are the pawns who get themselves killed for the sake of the money monopoly gangsters.

Originally posted by wcitizen
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1 - Saudi Arabia can go jump in a lake. So can Iran.
2 - WHAT are you doing over at that brainless echo-chamber democraticunderground?
Those are the loons that had baby trig up for sale and that call for riots if they don't get their way.
I think most of them are probably pimply unemployed teenagers living in their parents basements.