... betrayal. Formerly considering themselves to be net contributors to U.S. strength, Gulf Arab states today are beginning to view the U.S. as a freeloader state, taking advantage of their diplomatic efforts and financial resources with little reciprocation.
Gulf states, particularly Qatar, are being forced to reevaluate their own grand policies because of these events. Qatar followed a policy of proactive neutrality for many years. In addition to hosting U.S. bases and keeping up a conversation with Iran, it has been mediating between ...
... Syria. As the situation kept deteriorating, at some points in 2012 the CIA began helping U.S. allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar vet and identify rebels moderate enough to recommend them for military support and Obama secretly authorized both covert ... ... been very lightly involved compared with other major international meddlers in this conflict (e.g. Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, the Gulf states…), and 4.) since the overall post-2003 Iraq mess, for which the U.S. does bear a majority of overall responsibility,...
... what will America do now?
Going forward, here’s what we can expect:
1.) America will try very hard to distance itself from the Gulf.
It’s amazing that it’s taken us so long to realize how much our money going into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states comes back to haunt us: though Joe Biden recently got in trouble for saying so, support for ISIS and other Islamic extremists and terrorists from very wealthy individuals motivated by the Saudi state-sponsored and ever-present-throughout-the-Gulf ...
