The U.S. attempted to pressure Saudi Arabia for more concessions in the American war against terror by threatening to pull U.S. troops out of the Kingdom, but the Saudis have called the American bluff.
The U.S. leadership has been expressing off-the-record discontent over the level of cooperation the U.S. has been getting from Saudi Arabia for quite some time. Several American officials believe that the Saudis are not sharing their intelligence, and that they are not coming clean about the extent of backing and involvement by Saudis in anti-American organizations such as the al-Qaeda network.
In what appears to be a carefully orchestrated effort to pressure Saudi Arabia into accepting the American demands, several U.S. officials over the past few days have made public statements calling for the removal of American troops from Saudi Arabia. Among the more prominent voices calling for reconsideration of the American presence in Saudi Arabia were those of the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Carl Levin, and the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Porter Goss.
The statements of these important American politicians were published by the media over the past few days, and also publicized by the official American propaganda station Voice of America. The next stage in the American ploy was delivered by no less a person then the American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Secretary Rumsfeld responded to criticism of the warm relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in a halfhearted way, clearly indicating that he was not committed to maintaining these relations.
Saudi reaction was quick and unexpected. In an article that appeared in The Washington Post on January 18th, a mere two days after Secretary Rumsfeld’s statements, Saudi officials called the American bluff when they told the newspaper that they were considering asking the U.S. to leave. The paper quoted a senior Saudi official as saying that the Saudi rulers believe the United States has "overstayed its welcome".
The Saudi decision to immediately confront the Americans was not a hard one. While the American leadership tries to convey the image of U.S. troops in Saudi as protectors of the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia is in fact a strategic base for American forces operating far beyond the borders of the state. The U.S. Air Force uses air bases in Saudi Arabia to support its operations against Iraq, and the U.S. war in Afghanistan has been controlled from a high-tech center located at Prince Sultan Air Base, located 80km south of Riyadh.
The Saudi bases are crucial to the U.S., with no potential substitutes in other countries – and the Saudis know it. It is now expected that American talk of leaving Saudi Arabia will quietly disappear, and renewed statements of support and friendship be issued in its place. Saudi Arabia has won at the American game of Poker because it knew when to call a bluff. (www.albawaba.com)
