Saudi Arabia is insolvent? --- Foreign Affairs

"An ambitious leader never lets a crisis go to waste, and MBS is nothing if not ambitious. During the early days of the pandemic, he increased the kingdom’s value-added tax from five percent to 15 percent, and the government earmarked $1 billion in stimulus payments to Saudi businesses struggling with the economic downturn. MBS directed his sovereign wealth fund to shop for bargains on global stock markets. He even went nose to nose with Russian President Vladimir Putin on oil prices: when Russia refused to respect production limits set in 2017, Saudi Arabia opened the spigot, driving the price of oil down, very briefly, into negative territory. Even with oil prices back around $40 per barrel, the Saudis are left with only half the revenue they need to balance the government’s books. " FA

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Well pilgrims, Trumpy and Jared may love the Saudis and the murderer MBS, but I do not.   I was the Defense Attaché there for three years.  It was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my army career.  The level of social and legal restriction imposed by the theocracy was stifling.  Normal life was simply impossible.  Even as a diplomat I felt imprisoned in the embassy. For a foreigner to speak Arabic in public was most unwise because the immediate suspicion, often voiced, was that the foreigner was a SPY!

The one thing the Saudis have historically had "going for them" was the money that flooded the country from the ever flowing oil and gas stream.  Now, that is largely finito.  Good!  That means less money to use in spreading the Wahhabi cult, and less money to spend on futile fantasies like the war against the Zeidi mountaineers in Yemen.

A million gastarbeiters have left the country?  Good!  Perhaps the Saudis will learn how to do actual work.  Perhaps.  pl

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/saudi-arabia/2020-08-04/end-saudi-arabias-ambitions

Comments

[A.I.S.]

@Turcopolier

I am interested in your opinion as well, I am also very interested in the difference between yours and Babak, I expect these to be significant but I may be quite wrong.

My own view of Deobandism is heavily colored/influenced by the Taleban, which may be quite unfair to Deobandism as a whole.

[turcopolier]

A.I.S.

Babak and I generally agree on things Islamic. Deobandism seems to lack the salafi sentimentality concerning the purity of early Islamic community practice and to be carefully focused on usul fiqh (the roots of the law) as a basis for action. I will be interested to to learn Babak's opinion on this.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

james

Wiki is wrong - the claim that Deobandis teach Philosophy and Science.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

Col. Lang:

After the difference between Soft Deobandis ("Not in a Hurryn to Kill Shia Now!") and Hard Deobandis ("Best to Kill Shia Nw.")were pointed out to me, I lost any interest in learning anything more about them.

Studying their beliefs is useful for Iranians authorities who must govern several hundred thousand Deobandi Baluchis in Iran.

[blum]

Years ago, I suggested a cyber operation to drain ...
Posted by: The Twisted Genius | 07 August 2020 at 09:09 PM

draining money sources thus made sense to you? It may indeed, somehow, theoretically. ... With more complex outcomes. To not use the standards, opening new routes.

I recently pondered about the wisdom of sanctions more generally but then didn't have time or patience to dig through on whoever or whatever is listed on the US or EU sanction lists.

Question, if this isn't a too personal question how many years did you spent in the military and around what time you left?

[Tonymike]

Someone does not want the house of suad replaced because you don't know what you would get? How about democracy? The US is so quick to foist it on everyone else, foist it upon those who could benefit the most from it, the People of SA. God help them as royalty is nothing more then some guys with goons to back them up saying they are ordained by god to rule over others and sheeple fall for that nonsense. A color revolution there would do the world good and the world best if the house of suad was no more.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

Tonymike

" How about democracy?"

No, you will get civil war and ISIS.

Poor Muzaffar al Din Shah!

When confronted by the demand to sign the Ferman for Constitutional Monarchy, he asked: "If I sign this, would Iran become like France?"

The revolutionaries said "yes."

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

Scarlett O´Hara

I do not think of Mullah Omar or his kind.

I do feel sorry for their followers.

[Leith]

@Babak & Scarlett: "You don't believe me, ask the Yazidis."

I did ask Yazidis. They said the rapists & kidnappers were Chechens and North Africans led on by Iraqi Turkmen from Tal Afar and orchestrated by Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi who is also from Tal Afar. Perhaps there were some of al-Douri's Naqshbandi Sufi Army there, but they are Arab not Kurd.

Although you are right that the Yazidis do have a legitimate beef with the Kurdish KRG. Barzani's Peshmerga who were there to protect Sinjar turned tail and ran from the daeshi takeover of Sinjar. But then during the fall of Mosul so did two Iraqi Army divisions and 30,000 Iraqi policemen turn tail and run when it was taken over by 1500 daeshis.

It was secular Kurds of the Syrian YPG and the Turkish PKK that rescued 50,000 Yazidis from being massacred or enslaved. Some Shia Kurds in Sinjar were also murdered by daeshis and a Kurdish Shia mosque there was blown up.

[Babak makkinejad]

Leith

It was Iran led by Major General Soleimani, and Ayatollah Sistani, another Sia Iranian, who saved Iraq from ISIS.

[Leith]

I agree about Ayatollah Sistani. IMO he should have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

Yup; it was the Martians led by Major General Flash Gordon that saved Iraq from Ming.

[Leith]

Babak:

Apparently General Flash forgot about Ming's offspring Kang the Cruel in Syria. An al-Quds convoy just got whacked there by Daeshis only 30 to 35 km SW of Deir ez-Zor city.

https://syria.liveuamap.com/en/2020/12-august-isis-ambushed-a-convoy-of-alquds-near-the-settlement

Assad should send the Kurdish SDF into that area to hunt down the Salafis and keep al-Quds safe.