http://qz.com/332715/this-is-why-oba...ew-saudi-king/This coming week, Barack Obama is to cut short a trip to India to visit the new ruler of Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah last week. That the American president is so keen to abandon a fast-growing and important ally to visit the dementia-struck 79-year-old leader of an old one shows what sway the House of Saud still has over US foreign policy.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Amnesty International, British politicians angry at the Union Jack being flown at half-mast for Abdullah, and The Economist are just a few of those have called on Western politicians to rethink their close relationship with the conservative kingdom. Here are a few reasons why Obama should reconsider his trip to meet King Salman.
The human-rights record
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger, was flogged 50 times on Jan. 9 in front of mosque in Jeddah—part of a sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for calling for a “day for Saudi liberals.” Part of the evidence against him was that he liked a Facebook page for Arab Christians.
Badawi’s beating brought Saudi Arabia’s record on corporal punishment into the spotlight once more. It should make Obama think hard, coming as he does from the US—a country that has a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment as part of its Bill of Rights.
Public beheadings are common in the kingdom—87 people were executed last year, mostly by decapitation. Saudi Arabia is also one of just four countries that still execute offenders who are minors.
Why do we keep paying homage to these assholes?
The Saudis are biggest shit-stirrers in the entire Middle East, the reason we got attacked on 9/11 (15 out of 19 hijackers including Osama bin Laden himself were trained in their madrasas) -- they treat their own women like shit, worse than any other country not even allowing them to drive, even covered head-to-toe in their full burqa garb lest they be beaten and raped by religious police for "showing too much skin."
Fuck their cheap oil. The U.S. is now the largest producer and exporter world-wide. It's time to start using that leverage to tell them to pound sand. We can afford gas going back up to $3/gallon.
Shut down your terrorist training schools (madrasas) or we'll level Mecca.
Stop torturing dissidents, or we'll start dropping anti-Islamic propaganda all over Medina.
Treat women decently or we'll air drop Jane Fonda and Michele Bachmann on your asses right into downtown Riyadh.
That should about do it.
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