The Saudi war against Russian oil.

Well, this is a new one on me. The Cold War being about Saudi Arabia's war against Russian oil. I never got that at the time though I believe the Soviets did a lot to organize and fund Arab terrorists. The Soviets were cunning and effective manipulators. Wouldn't they have directed those terrorists at the Saudis if they'd seen the Saudis as a threat?

Gary Leupp, a professor of history at Tufts University, is pretty knowledgeable about the Cold War, at least the European-American aspect of it under discussion in his article. But he doesn't mention to Counterpunch readers that after Stalin's death the American-led NATO cold war against the Soviet Union was actually the Saudi war against Russian oil. And I suppose some would say the war was going on even during Stalin's time.

Anyhow, maybe Leupp simply doesn't know. That wouldn't be surprising. The war has continued to this day; it's just that it isn't talked about openly. I've seen the same reticence or ignorance about the U.S.-led Afghan War, and the current Syrian War. It might have been the same with Gaddafi's overthrow.

It's as if entire chapters have been ripped out of modern history to protect Al Saud.

Only very recently, since the Russian air campaign, has it become widely known that the Saudis and their Gulf allies have been fielding mercenary armies to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, but there are still gaps in knowledge about the situation and how early it began. Same with the Saudi involvement in Afghanistan and their influence with Pakistan.^[1]

The influence of the Saudis is, however, pervasive. Perhaps massive. How influential are they?

AIPAC clearly distorts American foreign policy. I wouldn't be surprised that Saudi Arabia's extraordinary wealth has trumped them or, at least, effectively made U.S. policy schizophrenic. Which is to say, senseless, ineffectual, and erratic.

I'll simply say that these are extraordinary times and U.S. foreign policy is inexplicable from what one can conclude from a seemingly commonsense assessment of U.S. interests. Moving a third (?) or your manufacturing base to territory controlled by a communist dictatorship was in our interest?

Open borders are patently treasonous and insane. Making Assad in Syria the locus of dictatorial evil in the world is bizarre. Dictator? Really? The accusations of use of sarin gas were bogus.

The demonization of Russia is even more bizarre with charges flying that we are witnessing the advent of a dangerous Russian military adventurism. Does anyone have any illusions what a graph of bomb tonnage released by the U.S. and Russia in the last 10 years would look like?

The search for understanding today has to broaden and we have to be willing to consider strange possibilities. Bill Clinton's presidential campaign was saved by a large donation from an Indonesian banker with ties to Chinese communist intelligence. The Clinton Foundation received $40 million from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE according to Greg Gordon who is quoted in the source in the footnote below. Did this make Bill Clinton beholden to the Chinese rather than the American people? That's sorta kinda in the past but what exactly will Hillary do in 2017-2020 for that 40 mill? And aren't there more recent Saudi contributions? Somebody's laying down a marker.

Let's just say we file this all away and mull it over. Maybe we can have something like the Meiji Restoration where the Japanese emperor was reestablished as the real ruler of Japan not the shoguns who had run things behind the scenes till then. At least before that the Japanese knew the name and address of the shogun. Now, for us, it's not so easy. As I like to say, kabuki theater has nothing on the American (and European) political class.

One thing is crystal clear. The wishes of the American (and European) people in all of this are irrelevant to the Treason Class. Whatever is going on is an insider's game and we're just standing there like lawn jockeys.

Notes
^[1] " Pundita reporting from a trench 10 clicks north Mountains of Shadow S.W., Mordor." By Pundita, 12/28/15.