The House of Saud as the ‘House of Trouble’

[bemildred]

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, considered to be the most prestigious Muslim country in the entire Islamic world, is certainly not without problems surrounding it from within and without. Most of these problems are a result of the policies of Saudi Arabia’s ruling clique itself. These apparently random-looking problems are, in fact, deeply inter-connected, and together constitute the story of the House of Saud’s undaunted quest for political and economic hegemony both internally and externally.

What started as a (Saudi-funded) campaign to dislodged Assad from the seat of power in Syria has now morphed into a serious threat for Saudi Arabia itself. ISIS is already knocking at its doors, has launched attacks inside Saudi Arabia many times since November 2014, and now has on its agenda occupation of the Kingdom itself. The ISIS/ISIL, created to fight Saudi proxy wars against Iran in the Middle East, was never intended to be a violent threat to Saudi Arabia itself. It happened only when the kingdom joined a broad coalition in October 2014 to bomb the group in Syria and Iraq.

Apart from creating proxy (anti-Shia) groups in the Middle East to fight Iran, the kingdom also attempted to damage Iran’s economy by forcing a huge drop in oil prices. Saudi Arabia was (as the most powerful member of OPEC) certainly at the helm of this year’s drop in oil prices. The purpose was to prevent Iran from settling its economy in the wake of a possible Iran-US deal on nuclear issue.

However, the plunge in oil prices has resulted in fueling crisis at home. As a result of this crisis, 35% of Saudi workers are now unemployed. An unemployed work force at home doesn’t seem to bother the country’s ruling elite. However, the kingdom is certainly taking “steps” to channel the problem in a desired direction. More than two-thirds of Saudi nationals are under the age of 30 and almost three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s. More than anything else, it is this younger demographic that poses the most serious challenge to the ruling elite. It is also this younger group which the kingdom hopes to “employ” in its so-called fight against Yemen.

http://atimes.com/2015/06/the-house-of-saud-as-the-house-of-trouble/

[DetlefK]

1. House of Saud is exactly the kind of western-backed tyrants ISIS wants to fight.

[Romeo.lima333]

2. theyre following the u.s. model, depress the economy make job scarce so the only

way to support yourself is to enlist in the war machine so you can lose your life for the benefit of the 1%

[malthaussen]

3. Considered to be most prestigious by whom?

I can about guarantee that the Hashemites have a different view. But hey, everybody knows the Saudis are cool. They're our best friends in the area! (Well, except maybe for Israel).

-- Mal

[MisterP]

4. this often happens in petrostates--not just because they're reliant on oil and thus

its global-market ups and downs, but because oil squeezes out every other sector ("Dutch disease&quot and that easily produces very mafia-like behavior as with Mexico's "perfect dictatorship" PRI or Venezuela's scrambling AD factions and "investigative departments"