Saudi Arabia has 2 sources of power: Mecca and oil (not in that order). To keep their status as a regional power requires a lot of resources dumped into fundamentalist Salafi proselytizing.
After the OPEC embargo in the 70s, there's been a quiet agreement that as long as the oil stays flowing, the US and SA simply look past their differences. The old line that "a man will begrudge his prince for taking his property far longer than he would begrudge his prince for the death of his father" holds true.
For over half a century now, America's second biggest interest in the Middle East has been crushing anything that looks like social democracy or pan-Arabism. Recent wars in Iraq, Libya, and Syria all fit into this. The best counter to this is a combination of monarchies and Islamic fundamentalism. Sure, this solution is not particularly friendly to the west, but just like Afghanistan, American policy is short-sighted and as long as they aren't wearing the same uniforms when they shoot back, it won't correctly recognize its enemy. So the GCC monarchies- enemies of democracy- have to keep the mask on at least somewhat. The tension that Qatar had recently was because they let their mask slip a bit too much.
they strayed from the Saudi and allies line and too brazenly supported the muslim brotherhood in Egypt and the wrong group in Libya. Qatar has slowly been trying to exercise more influence in middle-eastern politics and gearing up its army (now being one of the top military equipment importers in the world, when only a decade ago they were insignificant in that regard). Ultimately the vie for influence / power failed pretty much everywhere and Qatar and Saudi are slowly reopening diplomatic channels
Thanks for the write up, I know people were writing that the Qatar issue was allegedly over their support for the Muslim brotherhood but I don’t know a ton about them or how they fit into the regional politics, do you have a good article I could read on it?
I'm not really an expert, I just read a few books, several articles, and lots and lots of maps.
I would recommend Derek Davison's blog. He's more of an expert on the subject matter, has good politics and analysis, and has been a guest on choppoe
https://fx.substack.com/
Dont assume it as a Monolith State ," What interest could Factions in Saudi Arabia have to support 9/11" , and its probably Wahabism reasons ...
it’s kinda wild actually
so true for so many things once u once you pull away the cloth ... Lol .. but yeah ,its soooooo fucking wild actually ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84P4dzow1Bw
I don’t know if there’s evidence of complicity by the Saudi government. The AQ network was kind of a release valve for Saudi Failsons, sort of like the British Navy, or the French Foreign Legion, or Conquistadors in previous eras
I thought the US and SA had a good relationship during that period.
it was a good relationship before and a great relationship after
That's where you get into truther territory because if you don't interpret the attacks as an attack on the US and instead as Saudis and Americans collaborating towards shared interest, the motives are explained by both sides becoming much wealthier in the aftermath of 9/11.
Collaboration, probably not, but there was definitely existing knowledge of the attackers and they were under surveillance for a long ass time.
Lots of people say that the CIA and FBI were just incompetent and/or underfunded (I'll give you incompetent), but that's a hugely convenient fuckup for a lot of people involved, like Cheney and Bush that were looking for a casus beli and they just happened to get the perfect one in the first year of their rule.
