In a YouTube video, a Saudi cleric instructs young Saudi males on the proper way and the right reasons for beating your wife.
It is clear that the Sauds have a very hierarchical attitude towards women and children. I also think the Sauds have a very hierarchical attitude towards us, with Bush as their proxy overseer.
From the Saudi's information website comes this insight (bold mine):
With a quarter of the world's proven oil reserves and some of the lowest production costs, Saudi Arabia is likely to remain the world's largest net oil exporter for the foreseeable future. For these and many other reasons, Saudi Arabia plays a pivotal role in the Middle East and is of major importance internationally.
Which brings to mind that famous pic: (more........)
Now if Saudis correct errant wives, children and men by beating them, and if many Sauds hold the belief about America held by that notorious Saud, Osama bin Laden, perhaps the Bush megillah in Iraq has a very simple basis. We are proxy-beating an errant wife (Sadaam and Iraq) for our proxy husband, King Abdullah. After all, the King has a vested interest in the outcome of the world's second-largest oil reserve.
I think this is a relatively viable premise based on that famous pic. Given the adoring look Bush casts on the King, I don't believe that picture portrays a collegial relationship between the two men. Rather, the King is most definitely the dominant individual, one could say the husband, and the Leader of the Free World but a lapdog, or a mere wife.
Unfortunately, no divorce is imminent. The King and his minion are more wedded than ever, as Bush's America continues to wail on Iraq for the most cruel husband in the world. I wish I could seen a rapid end to the abuse. However, given the lack of will in Congress and the lust for war in the WH, I can only hope for an end to the beating.
But as the Sauds understand that the words of a woman may be sharper than the prick of a sword or any beating, so the Sauds should understand that our desire for peace will ultimately prove stronger than their lust to have us fight their war.
We may be stooped under the weight of Bush at present, but we will conquer his bad husbanding of our national resources before the King realizes he is no longer wed.