Well, at least they buy our jets: A Saudi F-15C fighter jet, made in America!
b. traven
In the run up to the Iraq war in 2002-03, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain worked so hard to get American approval that he was widely labelled as George W. Bush’s “poodle.” But who today yelps loudest when the kings of Saudi Arabia (that poor excuse for a nation) say “bark”? And when Israel’s reactionary government says, “go get ’em,” who’s the first to dash off? Is the United States, under Obama — and Bush before him — acting any differently to Saudi Arabia and Israel than Blair did with the U.S. before the Iraq war?
Americans like to think of themselves as the alpha dog – beholden to no one, master of the pack. But when you look at U.S. foreign policy today, the U.S. is more lap dog than alpha wolf. Indeed, if anything we’re poodles, jumping through flaming hoops being held by our Saudi and Israeli masters. And the more eagerly and obsequiously we obey, the more we get burned.
Evidence of this is everywhere. Leon Panetta, formerly head of the CIA as well as the Department of Defense, noted Bibi Netanyahu’s fondness for making speeches that were intended “to force the U.S. into a corner. “ More recently, Netanyahu gave an “instructional” speech on Iran’s nuclear program to his willing poodles in the U.S. Congress. Republicans and some Democrats stood up and cheered Bibi the Dog Whisperer. (He didn’t even have to blow a whistle to be obeyed.)
About the same time as Bibi’s performance, the Admiral of the Saudi Arabian Navy — oh, sorry “the King,” since the Saudis have no navy to speak of (unless aircraft carriers were part of their recent immense order of American weaponry) — instructed our intrepid Secretary of State, John Kerry, that we should send “boots on the ground” to fight the unruly ISIS gangsters that the Saudis are helping to finance. For some strange reason the King does not want to sully his newly purchased American weaponry in Iraq’s dirt. As usual, the Obama Administration appears all too willing to “go get ‘em” in obedience to the commands of the House of Saud.
If one still has doubts about how subservient America’s political leaders are to the commands of their Saudi and Israeli masters, in the last week we had 47 Republican Senators take it upon themselves to bypass the separation of powers and take foreign policy into their own hands. They wrote to the Iranian leaders that they will rescind any agreement the Iranians may sign on their nuclear program with the six nations, including the U.S., after Obama leaves office, even though they lack the formal power to do so. (Republicans must be counting on governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Florida’s Rick Scott, et. al., to exploit the Supreme Court’s weakening of the voting rights act to disenfranchise enough poor voters to win the 2016 presidential election.)
Americans, it’s time to take the dog whistle away from the likes of King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Bibi Netanyahu of Israel. It’s time to elect presidents and Members of Congress who don’t bark and wag their tails when the doggie whistle blows from America’s “allies” in the Middle East. It’s time to be masters of our own destiny, rather than raising our paw and rolling over whenever the Saudis or Israelis command us to do so.
The Contrary Perspective 
Again and yet again I must assert that if any entity is the tail wagging the US dog, it is CRUDE OIL, still the most important commodity on earth. This is doubly tragic since the quest to obtain this commodity has led to so much death and destruction from military action AND the environmental damage done by combusting the end products of this commodity threaten the health of the entire globe. I will stake my life on this statement: the physical damage our world is going to suffer from global climate chaos is UNIMAGINABLE to you at this time, fellow Earthlings! It is because of crude oil that Obama recently went to Saudi Arabia to kiss the Godfather’s ring (in essence, that’s what he did in kissing cheeks of kings and princes) while these “royals” insulted his wife. To assert nonsense about Israel pulling the US’s strings is to feed into the vilest anti-Jewish propaganda and I protest most vigorously! Obama and ‘Bibi’ are just having a little lovers’ spat right now. Our tax dollars go to the Israeli military machine for only one reason: Israel is used as a battering ram against the Arab world to keep the latter in line and keep the crude oil flowing. Keep the crude oil flowing. (I just borrowed a rhetorical device from Malcolm X there: repeat the key points.) No crude oil, no need for an armed to the teeth, belligerent modern state of Israel.
From b. traven: Greg.. I am rather shocked at your comment that accusing Israel like Saudi Arabia of influencing U.S. foreign policy is “anti Jewish”. Your comments are usually quite well supported and realistic but this one is quite a zinger.
We are all aware of the lobbying force of AIPAC on the US Congress and administration. Any congress person shudders at the thought of not voting for the next military funding for Israel even if those funds will go to suppress Palestinians. Only a handful in both houses failed to vote yes on military equipment that Israel could use in their recent brutal invasion of Gaza. If that is not pandering to Israel I don’t know what to call it.
Was Bibi Netanyahu’s recent performance before Congress not a bald attempt to influence our foreign policy on Iran? I looked at this like many Americans as an insult to our system of government, and incidentally also felt it fed anti semitism in our country and around the world. He did the same ridiculous thing in France and during the Charlie Hebdo tragedy.
I have relatives living in Israel but I feel that, just as I try to change our government’s policies in the best way I can, they have to do the same in Israel. Our business is here and their business is there! I came out of three years in WW II and at that time felt proud of our role in the world and Israel’s new born democracy. Now I am disappointed in both and I feel part of the problem is the new role of their extreme right wing government’s influence on our domestic and foreign policy. That’s just common sense not “anti Jewish”.
I suggest that you scan richardsilverstein.com to get the skinny on how Israel is really run and then let us know if you still consider questioning Israel’s relationship to the US as “anti Jewish” .
“b. traven”–A number of the Conspiracy Theorists who insist the Twin Towers could not have fallen on 9/11 without pre-placed explosives being detonated also claim Mossad agents were arrested at the scene of the crime that day, quietly released by NYPD later. (It may be a majority of these folks, but I don’t follow their propaganda, as I find it risible.) This kind of stuff and nonsense feeds into the anti-Jewish rhetoric about “the Jews” having all the money and thus power, and ultimately leads ignoramuses to conclude Jews are responsible for pretty well all the world’s ills, and have been for millennia. (Note I don’t use the phrase “anti-Semitic,” since the Arabs are also a Semitic people.) Quick, someone please produce a copy of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”–THAT’LL “prove” their guilt!! AIPAC would not be accorded the “respectability” to make it such a significant player in US politics if Israel wasn’t deemed useful to the interests of the US Ruling Class. On pro-Palestinian statehood demonstrations I participated in while living in NYC, the organization I belonged to–quite a few members of which came from Jewish heritages, as do I to a lesser extent–sometimes chanted “Israel is a death trap for the Jewish people!” The WASP males who rule USA couldn’t care less about Jews dying in Middle East conflicts…and the bat-shit crazy “christian” fundamentalists salivate over the prospect of Armageddon erupting over there so they can be “Raptured.” They publicly cheer on the heavily armed Israeli regime while in private they curse “the damned Jews who crucified our Lord.” Has there ever been a more UNholy alliance?
Greg: There’s a much wider debate within Israel about its governmental actions than is generally reported in the US media. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli government, especially the machinations of Netanyahu and his interference in US foreign policy, does not make one anti-Israel, nor does it make one anti-Semitic, whether you’re Israeli or American.
American Jews have often been cowed or silenced by accusations they’re “self-hating Jews” whenever they criticize Israel. Give me the solidarity that comes with honest criticism, not the manufactured version that comes with authoritarianism and the repression of speech.
One can support America and still criticize it, often outspokenly, as we do at this site on occasion. That doesn’t make us anti- or un-American, unless we favor a country inhabited by robots and yes-men.
This action by the Infamous 47 is hard for me to get a handle on. It reminds me of so many Letters to the Editor in both tone (passionately sincere) and content (half-assed, betraying the signatories ignorance of Constitutional legalities). This particular letter is exactly the sort of angry, frustrated missive frequently submitted by Joseph Jones from Anytown, Anystate that I glance at, size up, and swiftly dismiss as a deluded and ultimately pointless partisan rant, serving only to annoy me, lose further faith in the citizenship capacity of my fellows, and delay my progress to the op-ed’s.
I figure the Koch machine must have OK’d the thing for the usual impenetrable Righty strategy reasons, but also stipulated that a hard copy must be sent to Tehran. Why else would this group of geniuses have bothered doing so? I mean, usually, the GOP masterminds behind moves like this would just email copies to Breitbart, Rush, the Washington Times, and Murdoch cc Ailes, and call it good.
Spot on. Hope our President gets a copy. Remember what Prince Bandar said in late 2014: we take good care of our American friends who help us when they are in office [not an exact quote – I can’t locate the original right now.] Bala
Saudi arrogance waning fast with Putin asserting his firepower. Russia, China and India as anti-Islam powers, America and its Europe allies seem very much vulnerable. American real power is American Dollar as global currency. A few viable alternatives are emerging. Saudi will be bankrupt within the next 10-15 years with global oil availability increasing vis-a-vis decreasing demand and its sovereign fund investment losing with market investment write-offs as again increasing defence expenses.
Reblogged this on The Secular Jurist.
From one dog to another–good job!! In which hand of the industrial military hand does the whistle also reside? Do the banksters have whistles, too?
Here you’ll see a video of a presentation Netanyahu made before a Congressional committee in 2002 in which he encouraged a US attack upon Iraq. “A nuclear-armed Saddam will place the security of our entire world at risk,” he says at one point.It seems very much as if this man has been advocating war throughout much of his adult life.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?172612-1/israeli-perspective-conflict-iraq
A war that cost the US tax payer 2 trillion dollars, thousands of dead marines, and tens of thousands with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and or handicapped.
These traitors prefer to listen to a foreign politician and send young Americans to a much more disastrous war with Iran.
To get an idea of how subservient the USA has been to Israel research the attack of the USS Liberty and the cover up that followed and the war that spawned the attack. Americans have often been tasked to fight for and/or financially support the ‘sovereignty’ and status quo of other nations, most recently in the Middle East. William Westmoreland supposedly said “The military don’t start wars. Politicians start wars.” He should have studied history more closely. The causes of war are almost as numerous as wars themselves. The USA has been the pawn for other nation(s) on several occasions.