Pepe Escobar: “Our” Weaponized Wahhabi Bastards

Asia Times
October 18, 2013.

Life is good if you’re a member of the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, officially known as Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). You can crush the Arab Spring at will. You can hire goons all across dar-al-Islam to advance a sectarian Sunni-Shi’ite divide. You can be deeply implicated in the destruction of Syria. You can treat a significant part of your own population as third-class citizens.

Not only you get away with it; you get rewarded with expensive toys. And in one particular case – Saudi Arabia – even with a two-year seat at the UN Security Council.

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.

Comment: Excellent article by Pepe Escobar - calling it just right.

There is a verse in the Qur'an that says the religion will be taken away from those who abuse it and manipulate its authentic message.

I can't wait.

The Saudi Kingdom is turning Mecca into a Vegas/Disney aberration and its alliance with Israel and the US is just filthy.

Calling them "Wahhabi bastards" is right on.  But I have a few other colorful names I prefer.

Onward!