Source: Asia Times:
Not to mention that the House of Saud expertly gets away with manipulating Islam as the pillar of its “legitimacy”. The House of Saud controls the Hajj – which took place this week; an enormous logistical operation that “legitimizes” its role as leader of Sunni Islam, and automatically, the whole Islamic world. Well-informed Muslims though are very much aware of the fallacy – as much as they’re aware of how the House of Saud is fast transforming Mecca into a Vegas-style pay-per-prayer luxury resort. Who’s profiting? Certainly not the pilgrims.
This week, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced it had notified congress about selling more state-of-the-art heavy metal for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That breaks down into “various munitions and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support” to Riyadh for US$6.8 billion and to Abu Dhabi for $4 billion.
Weaponizing “our” Wahhabi bastards is the sweetest deal for the industrial-military-Orwellian Panopticon complex. Sequestration? Tight budgets? Who cares? There’s a never-ending contractor bonanza in the Gulf – inbuilt in the narrative of the benign superpower “benefactor” of those helpless oil and gas monarchic monopolies defending them against assorted evildoers; one day the evildoer is Iraq, the next day Iran, the next day could be their own people, so one’s gotta be prepared.
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Attitude, Behaviour, Saudi Arabia