The choice of Iraq over Saudi as Great Enemy has little to do with size or power; back before the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq wasn't a poor country. In fact, if Saddam hadn't misread US responses when he hinted at the possibility of taking over Kuwait, he would probably still be in charge and I bet he'd have developed a great friendship with King Abdallah by now.
The Saudis are safe because they will "do the right thing" when the chips are down -- see for example their recent refusal to cut oil production: there is a drunk Russian bear to quiet down, prices have to stay low to make him feel pain, so the Saudi Kingdom will make the "right" choice even if it costs them some cash. That's what a reliable partner does, and as long as partners remain reliable (and strategically irreplaceable), there is no reason to take them out.
In other words all that noise about "our values" is just hot air.
Btw, if by "a drunk Russian bear" you 're referring to Putin, the guy does not dring, or at least, he does not get drunk, unlike most Russian men of his age. That's one reason Russian women like him.
"Drunk" was a joke playing on Russian stereotypes in the West and on the expression "drunk with power" (the Russian military is currently making a spectacle of itself all over Scandinavia and the Baltic, not to mention the little issue of Crimea).
the Russian military is currently making a spectacle of itself all over Scandinavia and the Baltic, not to mention the little issue of Crimea)
Whatever the Russian military is making of itself, it's nowhere near as bad as what the "Coalition of the Willing" has been up to in <insert_any_corner_of_the_globe>
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The choice of Iraq over Saudi as Great Enemy has little to do with size or power; back before the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq wasn't a poor country. In fact, if Saddam hadn't misread US responses when he hinted at the possibility of taking over Kuwait, he would probably still be in charge and I bet he'd have developed a great friendship with King Abdallah by now.
The Saudis are safe because they will "do the right thing" when the chips are down -- see for example their recent refusal to cut oil production: there is a drunk Russian bear to quiet down, prices have to stay low to make him feel pain, so the Saudi Kingdom will make the "right" choice even if it costs them some cash. That's what a reliable partner does, and as long as partners remain reliable (and strategically irreplaceable), there is no reason to take them out.
In other words all that noise about "our values" is just hot air.
Btw, if by "a drunk Russian bear" you 're referring to Putin, the guy does not dring, or at least, he does not get drunk, unlike most Russian men of his age. That's one reason Russian women like him.
"Drunk" was a joke playing on Russian stereotypes in the West and on the expression "drunk with power" (the Russian military is currently making a spectacle of itself all over Scandinavia and the Baltic, not to mention the little issue of Crimea).
Whatever the Russian military is making of itself, it's nowhere near as bad as what the "Coalition of the Willing" has been up to in <insert_any_corner_of_the_globe>