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Open Letter to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
December 13, 2006

I am not surprised to read you threatened to support Sunni factions in Iraq if the U.S. withdraws its troops. I hinted at this destabilizing possibility in my commentary of Nov. 29.

Coming from you though, the threat sounds more like a bad joke than a serious statement of intent because many Americans believe you have always supported (and presently continue to support) Sunni factions in Iraq. It logically follows that Saudi Arabian support of Sunni terrorists in Iraq has contributed to American deaths. We don’t like people who help terrorists kill Americans. The Bush family may be infatuated with you but we the people are not.

Your threats amount to little more than camel droppings in the desert. Are you foolish enough to believe the American people care if you support one side or another in Iraq? Let me make it perfectly clear. We do not care. Why should we care about Saudi Arabia, a country that could not muster the courage to send troops into Iraq with the invasion coalition. Instead of dropping idle threats to the U.S., why don’t you send 150,000 Saudi troops into Iraq to take our place?

I predict Saudi Arabia will ultimately face off against Iran in a vicious religious war between Shi’ites and Sunnis. Arabs will kill Arabs in unprecedented numbers and the U.S. will sit silently on the sidelines to watch (if we can take time out from football or baseball on television). We have no interest in who ends up the victor in an Arab, Arab war. The oil will still flow and the victor will need to sell it somewhere.

The continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq acts only as a temporary delay of the inevitable Arab, Arab war. Wouldn’t it be better to get on with that war now, before one side or the other has nuclear weapons to deploy? I hope you understand though, that there are significantly more Shi’ites than Sunnis and this war you appear determined to start is ill-advised.

It is doubly distressing that you would communicate your meaningless threat to Vice President Dick Cheney. He is an old, feeble man under a great deal of pressure at work. People all around him have been resigning; his Republican administration is in a shambles and his boss is a man more deluded than you. What were you trying to do; give Cheney a stress-induced heart attack? We don’t like people who pick on our elders either. Every day you become more unpopular in the U.S.

Your desire to extort a U.S. presence in Iraq is quite the oxymoron. You want the U.S. there. Bush wants a democracy there. Once Iraq has a democracy (although that is unlikely), Iraqi zealots will want to spread democracy to neighboring countries. Saudi Arabia is a neighboring country. Saudi Arabia will become a democracy. You will be out of a job. Is that what you really want?

I suggest strongly you take your threats and your oil and pump them both where the sun doesn’t shine. If you don’t know the meaning of this old (slightly modified) American saying, have one of your advisors explain it to you. Then pull your head out of your ... sand and start working on a plan that promotes peace between Shi’ites and Sunnis instead of war.

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