BY ROGER ARMBRUST · FEBRUARY 18, 2016
We’ve written often of our frustration with the United States pursuing endless war and creating chaos in the Middle East. Meanwhile,
recent years have shown Saudi Arabia‘s kingdom advancing with global aggressive
war — either violent or economic — detrimentally affecting every continent.
Its vicious effort has even led now to negatively harm the kingdom’s economy,
leading to efforts at austerity. To deflect Saudis’ attention from their
internal problems, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ramped up the war effort this week, threatening to send
U.S.-supplied air power and troops into Syria, further complicating the
complex, globally dangerous conflict there.
The Saudis’ violent aggression has occurred on three main
fronts: (1) the inhumane, bloody assault on Yemen; (2) both funding and
fighting the murderous Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and (3) the
Sunni-led government’s beheading of a popular Shia cleric, inciting volatile
response in the Middle East and raising international alarm.
Meanwhile, the Saud royalty has created a global economic
malaise by manipulating the price of oil, forcing it lower and lower through
glutting the market with continued high production to protect market share.
This has caused fiscal woes worldwide, especially among nations monetarily
dependent on selling oil, ranging from the United States and Canada to Russia
and Venezuela.
The Saudis’ effort, actually with schizoid cooperation from
Washington, can only catapult the growing trudge toward world war.
Violent Aggression in Yemen
Yemen, a poor Middle East country (income per capital of $2,500) and a Saudi neighbor, has been caught up in a war between the government and rebel Houthis for over a year. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition – with arms, planes and logistic support supplied by Washington – have conducted airstrikes, allegedly on Houthi positions, but also killing civilians, and destroying infrastructure including water supplies and ports. Riyadh believes the Houthis are backed by Iran, and considers Iran an enemy.
A month after the bombing began, the United Nationscondemned the attacks and requested they cease so the UN could send aid and
humanitarian personnel. Last month, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly
chastised the Saudis for bombing a Yemeni hospital operated by Medecins Sans
Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF).
On Sunday The New York Times reported Human Rights Watch was
accusing the Saudis of firing “American-made cluster munitions, banned by
international treaty, in civilian areas of Yemen, and said their use may also
violate United States law.”
An Associated Press report Tuesday night revealed:
The U.N. humanitarian chief warned Tuesday that a
‘humanitarian catastrophe’ is unfolding in Yemen, exacerbated by increasing
restrictions on efforts to respond to the staggering needs of millions of
people including the diversion of a U.N. aid ship by Saudi-led coalition
forces.
Stephen O’Brien painted a grim picture of the war-ravaged
country: more than 35,000 casualties since March 2015 including over 6,000
deaths; at least 7.6 million people ‘severely food insecure;’ more than 3.4
million children now out of school; and nearly 600 health facilities and over
1,170 schools unfit for use because of the conflict.
O’Brien’s briefing to the U.N. Security Council, requested
by Russia, was the first focusing on the humanitarian crisis sparked by the
country’s civil war.
Funding and Fighting ISIS
Like Riyadh and Washington’s schizoid relationship with the
murderous assault on Yemen, Saudi Arabia appears to have its own internal
violent contradictions regarding ISIS. On the one hand, the Riyadh government
has joined with the U.S. since September 2014 in fighting ISIS. On the other
hand, Riyadh has publicly discouraged but allowed Saudis to privately funnel
support to the radical Muslims who, like the Saud family, are Wahabbis, i.e.
ultra-conservative followers of Sunni Islam. Sunni Islam is the world’s largest
religious faith. Wahabbism denounces the Shia faith, the second largest sect of
Islam.
The Saudis are foes of Shia governments in Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Iran and Iraq are members with Riyadh in the Organization of PetroleumExporting Countries (OPEC) and three of the world’s top 10 oil producers. While OPEC members, they also compete for global market share, thus placing them at both religious and economic odds.
Washington, more in love with Arabian oil and weapons sales
than logical foreign policy, has looked away from Riyadh’s bloody
contradiction, allowing it to help continue Middle East chaos. Besides, it
allows the Saudis to be U.S. allies in opposing Syria’s Shia-led government ofBashar al-Assad. But it also led Washington to basically ignore Riyadh’s
helping ISIS in Iraq.
A Religious/Political Beheading
On January 1, Riyadh greatly upped the ante in the Wahabbi
vs Shia confrontation by beheading — along with 46 others — Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr for “terrorism”.
Riyadh obviously considered him an enemy of the state. But his death set off a
regional firestorm. As UK’s The Guardian reported:
The Iranian government and religious leaders across the
Middle East have condemned Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric
and warned of repercussions that could bring down the country’s royal family.
In a serious escalation of religious and diplomatic tensions
in the region, councils and clerics in Iran, Yemen and Lebanon said the killing
of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr would prompt widespread anger.
Oil and Global Economic War
Riyadh’s refusal to curb oil production, at first, was
largely seen as an effort to destroy the oil-fracking industry in the UnitedStates, and Washington has appeared limp in opposing that. The American
fracking industry took on deep debt, and has needed oil prices to maintain at
$50-$60 a barrel to survive. But, with the Sauds glutting the market, prices
have fallen to currently $20-$30, threatening the shale industry in the U.S.
But the Saudi effort has also greatly harmed major oil
producers like Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria and Mexico, along with others.
Indeed, the world’s economy has now been gouged.
This week, in a public relations ploy at seeking a solution,
Russia and Saudi Arabia met in Qatar along with Venezuela. They agreed to
freeze production at January levels if other oil producers would agree. They
may not.
That goes particularly for Iran, who has just seen decades
of sanctions lifting, allowing it again to sell oil worldwide, threatening
Riyadh’s and others’ share of the take. It also means, while oil prices are
killer low for everyone else, Iran can now make money on oil at quantities it
couldn’t produce and sell for years, meaning an extra 500,000 barrels added to
its 2.9 million barrels a day.
Will this end with Riyadh getting serious about curbing
production and raising prices, easing others’ plight? Or will it mean the king
getting serious about invading Syria, bringing that regional conflict, already
resembling 1914, even closer to world war? While Russia and the U.S. actually
seem to be seeking a stalemate in Syria…for the moment, at least…Riyadh and
Turkey appear intent on confusing the issue and increasing the bloodshed. And
Russia’s prime minister has warned of world war should foreign ground troops
invade Syria.
Is there a solution? Perhaps China, who wants to peacefully
trade with everybody, is powerful enough to step in and bring reason. It seems
to have been trying. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia and
Iran, as well as a trip to Egypt, in late January in efforts at good will and
trade.
But, for now, the whole sad Middle East affair looks bleak
indeed, and leads us to quote the words of the late John Lennon:
Nobody told me there’d be days like these…Strange days
indeed…
(Originally published in reality: a world of views)
(Originally published in reality: a world of views)
