Saudi is funding a lot of Sunni rebels in Iraq: are they on our team or gone rogue?

[yurbud]

The weird thing about 9/11 and since, is that the Saudis were big funders and even coordinators of al Qaeda and other Sunni fundamentalist groups, but in many cases, they worked to undermine governments our government didn't like (see Iran, Libya, etc.).

With this current chaos they are causing in Iraq, is Saudi backing this to support some broader US foreign policy goal like breaking Iraq into smaller, more easily bullied pieces, or are they "going rogue" and pursuing their own agenda of beating down Iran to be the top dog in the Middle East?

Also, if it's the second, what should, can, or will the US government do about the Saudi involvement?

My guess is they will do about as much about it as they did about their involvement in 9/11.

So which is it: Saudis support of Sunni fighters in Iraq part of larger US strategery or Saudis gone wild?

2 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Saudis are supporting broader US policy in the region by backing Sunnis in Iraq
	0 (0%)
	Saudis have gone rogue. Our government wants Iraq to stay unified and Saudis are putting their rivalry with Iran ahead of that
	1 (50%)
	Neither/other (please explain)
	1 (50%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[Demeter]

1. The Saudis have always view the US as THEIR minion

not the other way around.

And to our shame, we keep proving them right.

[Bigmack]

2. Yup. Reckon so…. Alas NT (Ms Bigmack)

[Fred Sanders]

3. The media shouild be asking if Saudi is funding ISIS and ISIS is our sworn enemy, what does that

make Saudi?

America has invaded entire nations for less than what the Saudi's are doing against American national interest.

[KamaAina]

18. Well, Faux sure as hell won't be

because Saudi is funding them.

[onehandle]

4. The Saudi Royal Family are not our friends.

Like China, they profit by playing us as fools against minor armed tyrannies.

See: 9/11

Smirk invaded the wrong country.

[joeybee12]

5. Since 9/11? Hell, the Saudis were big funders of 9/11

What the hell do they have holding over us that we continue to take sh*t.

[yurbud]

8. at the time, I figured since they were our allies, they attacked us, and our gov't did nothing...

that it added up to Saudis doing Bushies a favor.

But sometimes, like this, it really is hard to tell.

[joeybee12]

9. I'm sure the Bushies knew and know a lot more than

what they're revealing...at least Bush I does, or did, before he got so old...Dumbya is probably clueless.

[yurbud]

11. Dubya probably isn't sure where his asshole is

unless Jeff Gannon is over.

[joeybee12]

12. He should...he sees it in the mirror each time he speaks...nt

[HooptieWagon]

6. Just my hunch...

The Sunni extremists aren't being directly funded by Saudi Govt. Rather, they're being funded by wealthy Saudi individuals. Such funding abetted by lax banking/financial oversight in SA, Kuwait, and Qatar, and possibly deliberately overlooked by Saudi officials.

[yurbud]

10. that could add up to plausible deniability possibly, but in the past, their gov't

directly facilitated terrorism and Prince Bandar even made a terrorist threat against Britain to Tony Blair, which Blair took seriously enough to act on it.

Here's a quick resume of Bandar Bush, with supporting links:

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/02/bandar-bushs-terror-threat-to-britain.html

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. The Saudis strike me as being similar to

France under Richelieu, working to destabilize many of the countries around them to keep themselves on the top of the heap.

[Lurks Often]

13. Saudi Arabia and the US have always had their own interests in the Middle East

Often those interests overlap and some times they differ. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States are very nervous about what they view is an expressionistic Iran, although this more about the religious differences.

Saudi Arabia is some 90% Sunni and they don't want a primarily Sh'ia run Iraq, it's why they supported Iraq under Saddam until he started becoming unpredictable. Iraq could be counted upon to prevent Iran from trying to spread it's influence further west and south in the Middle East.

[closeupready]

14. Standard operating procedure for them. Not surprising at all.

[MisterP]

15. WE'RE supporting Sunni rebels

[yurbud]

16. in Iraq too?

[MisterP]

17. if it's the same people in Syria they're the same people in Iraq

they just went rogue a little (believe me, this isn't the first time it's happened--or even the first time we've been backing both sides of the same fight)

we support 'em in Syria (directly, I may add) and fight 'em in Iraq, just like how we LOVED the proto-Taliban and -AQ until 1992, then flipped; now we like AQ, but only in some countries; US foreign policy is always "some restrictions may apply," I'm afraid (and sometimes we just "buy in" to what Israel and Argentina are doing on their own)--heck, Moscow and Havana supported Argentina WHILE it was butchering 30,000 innocent bystanders in the name of "rooting out Reds"

[yurbud]

20. good point. I still haven't figured out when after helping us break Yugoslavia al Qaeda went off

our buddy list.

[kelliekat44]

19. Rogue? They funding their own people. Get a grip. nt

[YoungDemCA]

21. Al-Qaeda and their offshoots have hated the Saudi royal family ever since American troops arrived

in the Kingdom. So I don't think that the government of Saudi Arabia has really sponsored those groups (at least, not directly-plenty of money flows from Saudi bank accounts to terrorist groups, sure, including religious foundations or "charities" and other accounts, many of which have government sponsorship).

However, Saudi donors (including government) did sponsor the Taliban and other hard-line groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan for a long time. The Saudis aren't stupid; they know that if they don't keep Al-Qaeda and its offshoots busy with conflicts in other countries (like Syria and Iraq), the terrorist groups would be even more motivated and able to attack targets within the Kingdom than they are already. Not to mention, their proxy wars with Shiite Iran. In that way, Sunni groups like ISIS are strategically useful to the Saudis in that region.

Note that the Pakistani government was/is even more up to their noses in support for the Taliban (and by extension, Al-Qaeda's ability to have a sanctuary in the region). The 9/11 Commission Report listed Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan as three incredibly problematic countries that are flashpoints in the fight against Al-Qaeda (or the "War on Terror"-God, I hate that term!)

[yurbud]

22. it was more than some individual donors:

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2008/02/bandar-bushs-terror-threat-to-britain.html