Saudi students to be expelled after Pensacola shooting

Well that certainly took longer than I expected that it would.
 
The population of Saudi Arabia is more ideological (or theological?) more anti-American than any nation has ever been since 1776.

You would find more pro-American sentiment in Tokyo 1941, Peking 1952 or Hanoi 1971 or Tehran 2020, than in Saudi Arabia today (or ever).

It disgusts me to be my soul than the USA does anything to "defend" such a people as the suicidal-homicidal Saudis.

There are no good Saudis. None.
 
My DS says the two in his BOLC class are nice guys, but they smoke too much.

Same with my experience. My Saudi Arabian classmates at the Army’s Command and General Staff College smoked like chimneys. They and most of my classmates from the old Warsaw Pact countries were always in the smoking area during our class breaks.
 
The thing that concerns me SO MUCH is the anti-American social media posts, that seemingly go unnoticed. Not with this incident alone, but many of the mass shooting. Nothing like ‘hiding in plain sight’ !! It’s all out there for the internet to see.

The shooter posting on 911 ‘the countdown has begun’ HOW does that stuff not get acted upon? We look like fools.

 
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I can't say who told me this: "The country over here that concerns me more than anybody except for Iran is Saudi Arabia."

That's not a great endorsement for an ally.
 
You have to wonder why these foreign trainees were not vetted more thoroughly in the first place. I also question our relationship with Saudi Arabia which has a poor human rights record, supports terrorism, does not respect women, etc. Were it not for their oil, would we have such a close relationship? And, is Saudi oil really worth the price we play for "dancing with the Devil?"
 
Oh I get it, and I'm not mad at ya.

I'm going to swim upstream here however, and say that when we make blanket statements about entire populations, we end up missing a lot.
It's how wars start.
I second that. However, I don't think we should be training people from a nation which clearly harbors a great amount of animosity towards America and its ideals. Also, why in the world did we not pay attention to the social media red flags? Unbelievable that 3 deaths could have been prevented if someone had spoken up about it.
 
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Two books I would recommend:



These books describe in detail the structure of Saudi society which is based 100% on the patronage of the Saudi Royal house. The second book tells the story of rise of the Binladen construction empire, the most successful beneficiary of Al Saud patronage until the rise of MBS, who establishing his own patronage system. of which the US is a part.

My DS had two Saudis in his SBOLC class. DS, having studied Arabic, was sort of an unofficial chaperone. They were decent guys, but entitled. I don't know if they smoked, but he said they drank--a lot.

The wife of one came to visit before graduation. During her visit my son drove the other one around because the wife of the first could not ride in the same car with an unrelated male.
 
You have to wonder why these foreign trainees were not vetted more thoroughly in the first place. I also question our relationship with Saudi Arabia which has a poor human rights record, supports terrorism, does not respect women, etc. Were it not for their oil, would we have such a close relationship? And, is Saudi oil really worth the price we play for "dancing with the Devil?"
I don't think it's oil at present. It was at one time but we're oil independent now. I think it's the counterbalance they offer to Iran. Iraq under Saddam Hussein used to be that counterbalance but we took out Saddam. So now we are left with the Saudis. I suppose we might be concerned about oil but only in the sense that it helps supply our European allies.
 
Maybe there were ill intentions to begin with. Maybe not. Maybe he became radicalized while here. I don’t know.

But my POINT is that many spout off anti-American sentiment on social media. HOW is that not monitored. Even unofficially. The whole ‘see something, say something’ thing?

He LITERALLY posted “the countdown has begun” on 9/11. HOW is that overlooked?

They don’t even have to pretend to hate. Or hide. Unbelievable.
 
I don't think it's oil at present. It was at one time but we're oil independent now. I think it's the counterbalance they offer to Iran. Iraq under Saddam Hussein used to be that counterbalance but we took out Saddam. So now we are left with the Saudis. I suppose we might be concerned about oil but only in the sense that it helps supply our European allies.

I don't disagree with you that the Saudis are a counterbalance to Iran. But I do wonder how much of an effective counterbalance they really are. If Iran were to roll armor through southern Iraq and seize the southern Shiite part of Iraq, they would be on Saudi Arabia's doorstep. I question whether the Saudi military would be very effective at stopping an Iranian adventure. And, I certainly would not want our boys fighting to protect Saudi Arabia if it were to be attacked by Iran. So, our alliance with Saudi Arabia makes me uncomfortable. Not sure what benefit it is giving us.
 
I don't disagree with you that the Saudis are a counterbalance to Iran. But I do wonder how much of an effective counterbalance they really are. If Iran were to roll armor through southern Iraq and seize the southern Shiite part of Iraq, they would be on Saudi Arabia's doorstep. I question whether the Saudi military would be very effective at stopping an Iranian adventure. And, I certainly would not want our boys fighting to protect Saudi Arabia if it were to be attacked by Iran. So, our alliance with Saudi Arabia makes me uncomfortable. Not sure what benefit it is giving us.
Not here to argue the point, only to point it out.
 
I don't think it's oil at present. It was at one time but we're oil independent now. I think it's the counterbalance they offer to Iran. Iraq under Saddam Hussein used to be that counterbalance but we took out Saddam. So now we are left with the Saudis. I suppose we might be concerned about oil but only in the sense that it helps supply our European allies.
yep, as long as we bear the burden of keeping the sea lanes open and showing the flag of freedom, we'll continue with distasteful relationships.flag1.jpg
 
I've got a funny Saudi story. My son spent a year at CENTCOM Forward going to and fro in the AOR and had to transfer at King Khalid airport in Riyadh several times. He traveled in civvies with a civilian passport and (I know from experience) he crams his clothes into his suitcase. He said he knew every time his bags were searched by the Saudis because when he got back to the Q, his clothes were neatly folded and placed back nicely.
 
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