Saudi King Abdullah is dead.

Another despot bites the dust.

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

King Abdullah, the 90 year old member of the family that runs the country of Saudi Arabia, (with US weaponry backing them up) is dead. Might it have been he was so upset at having to postpone the weekly flogging of a journalist due to international pressure? Was it possible that there was a threat of a mass mobilization by all the leaders of the "free" world to stand with the journalist and free speech?

US president Barack Obama, not known for pulling punches when it comes to old Putin, expressed his "personal sympathies and those of the American people".

Obama went on, "As a leader, he was always candid and had the courage of his convictions. One of those convictions was his steadfast and passionate belief in the importance of the US-Saudi relationship as a force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond,"

Abdullah had the courage of his convictions alright. He believed in absolute power, religious intolerance, funding Islamic fanatical groups and religious schools. He opposed unions, free speech and women's rights. He did not consider women his equal by any measure and by some accounts has been married some 30 times fathering 25 children.

Could it have been that there were not enough beheading's last month or possibly that those damn women are still complaining about not being able to drive a car or leave home without a male family member. (even a teenage boy)

Saudi Arabia is stable alright but then so was Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under the iron heel of Stalinism. Despots are OK if they share the loot with the US ruling class. One has to marvel at the absurdity of bourgeois politics.  The tiny Island of Cuba is blockaded for 60 years by the world's most powerful military power, the largest gathering of world leaders perhaps ever, went to Paris to stand up for free speech as the Saudi journalist received his first 50 lashes for daring to publish a website supporting freedom of speech for Saudi Arabia and the president of the US gives praise to a despot.  A Saudi woman was sentenced to 60 lashes in 2009 for simply participating in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex. No doubt all the freedom loving folks in the US Congress have nothing but kind words for this nasty individual. Why shouldn't they though, they are all in this together.

The thousands of workers who are brought to Saudi Arabia from places like Nepal and Bangladesh have no rights. Many of the women who work as maids have been treated with the utmost brutality, raped and in some cases killed by rich Saudi's that hire them. 

The folks at the Pentagon and in Congress don't speak for me, neither does the president.  Their diplomacy and reverence for each other and the so-called "rule of law" is phony

I hear the Bush family are in a state of grief having lost such a fine family friend.