My question is: How would Saudi Arabia benefit from us invading Iraq?

[shance]

Makes no sense to me.

If Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserve and we are their "clients", so it would go against every logical conclusion that I know of that the Saudis would want us to invade Iraq.

Then we would be that much more threatening to their country and the Middle East at large?

Doesn't seem to add up.

[neuvocat]

1. I'm not sure

I recall nothing about the Saudis wanting the U.S. to invade. If anything, there seems to have been some increasing tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Yet on the other hand there is the strong connection between the Bush family and many powerful Saudis.

Maybe it isn't so much to do with the oil as it does with the water. Iraq after all is a basin for the Euphrates river and controlling it would in fact be key to influencing much of what goes on in the mideast.

Its hard to tell what to make of any of this, at least for me anyway.

[sasquatch]

2. Because BCF and The Saudi Royal Family are in buisness together

Now that the Bush Crime Family has control over Iraq oil fields so do the Saudi's. So now thru the Carlyle Group they have the worlds largest and second largest oil reserves.

[this_side_up]

3. I think it was after the

first Gulf War I read that SA no longer had the largest
oil reserves. Iraq was #1.

If that is true (is there more than one group that
estimates oil reserves? I don't trust any so-called
official person or group any more)
then how's about slant drilling Iraq's oil?

From what I've read unemployment in the entire ME is
about 15% or so and becoming worse every year as kids
age. SA no longer has the bucks to spread around to
its peon citizens while at the same time maintaining
the 6-7K members of the royal family in their accumstomed
opulent, lavish lifestyle.

Heaven forfend they should cut back here and there,
much less go on a reality-based budget.

[DagmarK]

4. The Carlyle Group is the GLUE

Bush Sr. and the royal sauds.....business buds in Carlyle Group. Halliburton is part of Carlyle(right? now I get confused).

BUT.....Bush Sr. dropped the Sauds (on paper only, I am sure) after 9/11 "because of how it looked")

This isn't about COUNRIES. This is about business.

[jamesinca]

11. haliburton is not part of carlyle

they do have interchangeable parts though. It makes them one in the same.

[Dirty Hippie]

5. The Saudis

wanted us to get our military out of their country, which we have done as a result of Iraq. Our presence in their country was always a huge problem for the Islamic fundamentalists. Remember, this was one of Bin Laden's primary gripes.

On edit: Added stuff and link

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=93912

[ClintonTyree]

17. We have a winner!

The U.S. still wants and needs a military presence in the region. The Saudis would rather have the U.S. out of their country, but still close enough to bail their asses out of any 'situation' that may arise. Iraq fills the need nicely. However the Iraqi's threw a monkey wrench into the works because they're not cooperating, you know, throwing flowers at our troops and dancing in the streets. How this occupation will settle is anybody's guess, but rest assured it won't be according to the master plan of the cons.

[shance]

6. So why would the Saudis want to De-classify?

And the Bushes are also close with many other individuals that are members of the Carlyle as well.

The whole thing even with Osama. We all just were to automatically believe that Osama was behind Afghanistan. Says who? The Bush Administration?

What I dont get is how everyone is so quick to jump on these crumbs that we are fed.

[this_side_up]

7. ok, I vote for

all of the above reasons.

Any more?

[this_side_up]

8. How about blackmail, consisting

of photos? tapes? of certain people doing whatever?

I think the Crime Family has a cozy relationship with
SA so I am not sure how or if blackmail fits in.

Yet I do believe they do have some sort of hold over
the boy who would be king and his daddy.

[Dirty Hippie]

9. Excellent link

to learn more about Saudi Arabia (provided to me by another DUer). I too have wondered about their motivations. It seems that the Saudi government suffers some sort of schizophrenia. They are pro-western captialists on the one hand and rabid anti-western Wahhabists on the other.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html

[leftofthedial]

10. we are subservient to them

Iraq under Saddam was not.

[jamesinca]

12. I think it does a few things

1) as was mentioned in a post on this thread it gets us out of SA, that was one of bin-Ladens gripes. I also was hearing reports that the SA govt. asked us in Dec or Jan to leave the country once the Iraq thing was done. I wish I had saved the article to post now but I din't. The SA govt is having a hard time keeping its people in line, mostly teen-agers and young adults, because of the U.S. presence. They need us out to keep peace in their country.

2) taking out Iraq and Hussein it makes a country more powerfull than them less powerfull. It moves them closer to the top of the food chain if you will.

3) it allows them to trade in the Iraq oil market. They can send workers, engineers, oil field managers etc. to Iraq. Basically, money! The Chenney energy plan and its papers were recently released, the entire border of SA and Iraq were outlined for oil exploration. Why not the Iranian border, why not the Syrian border. Just a fleeting thought.

[Paschall]

14. I disagree with your second point

If I understand the situation correctly, Gulf War 1 meant an increased Saudi need for US military equipment. The Iraqi "threat" enabled us to sell millions of dollars in arms to the Saudis (think fighter jets and Patriot missile systems); the resulting debt is one of the causes of their current economic and social problems. Since Gulf War 1, Saudi Arabia has been a much more powerful nation than Iraq, if only in weaponry.

[leanings]

18. Eh, I don't know

that the Saudi National Guard is very much of a military force. It's pretty hollow; good weapons and training but no support structures. They would have needed US help to take on the Iraqi Army, even in its post GWI condition.

There was no love for Saddam in Saudi. The ruling family viewed him as a threat to the ME and to SA in particular. In order to counter that threat, they needed a continued US military presence, which the Saudi people despised. So our invading Iraq tied up this problem neatly; they got rid of what they percieved as a threat to the region and got us out of the country at the same time.

[cthrumatrix]

13. Corporations benefit from war....Oil is run by corporations...and war

benefits those such as Haliburton etc...who influence policy.

[Loonman]

15. Saddam was a secular leader

Who oppressed Muslims, even while Saddam was building massive Mosques.

[CWebster]

16. Israel was the dark player,

goading on aggression towards Iraq. Now they want the US to hit Iran and Syria.

To state such a fact would brand one as anti-semitic, thus the entire undertaking flies under the rader, due to a campaign of intimidation via political correctness.