6 Responses

1. Wonder if he will embarrass the USA again by bowing to this sponsor of terrorism.

2. will he or won’t he kiss the hand of the king

3. Actually the Israelis and the Saudis are on the same side at this point – both want the US to do something seriously about Iran, and the US prefers to isolate itself from the problems. Given the growing isolationism in the US, the Democrats antipathy towards the military, and the fact that the US is no longer dependent on Saudi oil – Obama will be polite but will probably make it clear that the Iranians aren’t “our” (meaning the American’s) problem. The Saudis (whose people may or may not support the monarchy, but most Saudi’s are fanatic Sunnis who hate the Iranian Shiites) can’t work too closely with the Israelis unless that Israelis can settle with the Palestinians, which isn’t about to happen no matter how scared everyone is of the Iranians.

4. Commenters 1 and 2: You are embarrassing yourselves with your unfamiliarity of protocol between heads of state. There are plenty of videos showing US Presidents Reagan, Bush 41, Bush 43 and others doing the same things President Obama did when he met with Arab heads of state. It’s nothing to worry about, and it embarrasses no one who understands how these things work.

   And, Commenter No. 3: Congratulations, your first clause is correct. The rest of it – you lost me.

5. I hope Husain Obama stays there.

6. #4 – the bottom line is the Saudi and the Israeli are in big trouble since:

   1. The US is losing interest in the Middle East because the US is increasingly isolationist in general, and is no longer depenent of Middle Eastern oil. The Democrats, and probably most Americans, aren’t interested in any more foreign military adventures.

   2. No matter how much the Saudis would love to ally with the Israelis, they can’t as long as the conflict with the Palestinians is ongoing – and no matter how much the Iranians are a bigger threat to the Israelis than the Palestinians.