Patrick Cockburn: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country | The Independent

“Western governments traditionally play down the connection between Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabist faith, on the one hand, and jihadism, whether of the variety espoused by Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida or by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Isis. There is nothing conspiratorial or secret about these links: 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, as was Bin Laden and most of the private donors who funded the operation. … The West may have to pay a price for its alliance with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, which have always found Sunni jihadism more attractive than democracy. A striking example of double standards by the western powers was the Saudi-backed suppression of peaceful democratic protests by the Shia majority in Bahrain in March 2011. Some 1,500 Saudi troops were sent across the causeway to the island kingdom as the demonstrations were ended with great brutality and Shia mosques and shrines were destroyed. …  Saudi Arabia has created a Frankenstein’s monster over which it is rapidly losing control.” Full story here.

Also see: How Iraq’s ISIS Crisis Restores Saudi Influence | Forbes

And: [[https://cpress.org/leftnews/comment-on-the-crisis-in-iraq][Comment on the crisis in Iraq | Leftnews.org ]]