Ron Paul welcomes US-Saudi rift

Diplomatic relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have recently gone sour, but longtime lawmaker Ron Paul says the fall-out is something worth celebrating.The recently-retired Republican congressman from Texas writes in an op-ed this week that murmurings of a strain between the US and Saudis should be welcomed by Americans and may allow both nations to “return to peace and commerce rather than sink under entangling alliances.”
Earlier this month it was reported that the Saudis refuted a chair in the United Nations Security Council due to concerns regarding America’s handling of recent events in the Middle East, namely Syria and Iran. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudi intelligence chief told European diplomats that his country would be scaling back cooperation with the US due in part to Washington’s refusal to attack Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad over his reported use of chemical weapons. Additionally, news of an emerging alliance between the US and Iran — a long-time opponent of Saudi Arabia — wasn’t welcomed in the Kingdom either.
And although the Saudis said they wouldn’t take a seat within the Security Council, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud told the Wall Street Journal, "This was a message for the US, not the UN.”


“Why does Saudi Arabia insist that the United States fight its battles?” he asks in an editorial published on Sunday on the website for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, a think-tank formed earlier this year by the former congressman in an effort to promote non-interventionism. “The Saudis are strongly opposed to the governments in Syria and Iran so they expect the US to attack. It is their neighborhood, why don’t they fight their own wars? Israel shares the same position in the region as Saudi Arabia: it has been fighting to overthrow Assad in Syria for years, and Israeli leadership constantly pushes the US toward war on Iran. They are both working on the same side of these issues but why do they keep trying to draw us in?” he asks.

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Ray410 said:

Anytime a foreign country believes it has the right to become offended at the United States because we didn't satisfactorily act as their mercenaries, it is time for a substantial relationship re-adjustment.

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WCH said:

IMO, the 'only' reason we were ever friendly with was oil.

BTW: I've been to the LBJ library and he and Lady Bird received lots of very expensive gifts from that part of the world.

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