West’s tributes to late Saudi King reveal hypocrisy not democracy

By admin-s On Jan 27, 2015

John Wight, RT

Hypocrisy is not usually regarded as a virtue of leadership, yet judging by the gushing tributes paid to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah by various Western governments and establishment figures on his death, there are those who believe it should be.

In the UK this hypocrisy has been stretched to breaking point with the decision to fly the flags over Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and Westminster Abbey at half-mast in tribute to Abdullah. It was a decision met with revulsion by all right thinking people.

Let us be frank for a moment. Given the barbarous and medieval nature of Saudi Arabia, a country in which public beheadings, hangings, floggings, and torture are routinely carried out, given the role of the Saudis in fomenting and funding carnage and mayhem across the Middle East, and given the lack of human rights afforded its citizens, particularly women, few tears should be shed over King Abdullah’s passing.

Anyone watching the footage of the Burmese woman being held down and beheaded by four men in Mecca recently, even as she begged for her life, could not feel anything except overwhelming disgust that such atrocities could take place anywhere and be considered justice in the year 2015. And she is just one of the nine people who have been beheaded in Saudi Arabia in January alone, suggesting an intention on the part of the country’s authorities to exceed the 83 victims of this barbaric practice in 2014.

If this is the fruit of King Abdullah’s much vaunted ‘modernizing’ influence then the word is obviously bankrupt of all meaning.

How can it be that the West is on the one hand fighting ISIS and its butchery in Iraq and Syria, while on the other maintaining the closest of economic, strategic, and political relations with a government that practices the same butchery on a regular basis?

The answer, of course, is money.

When it comes to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, however, money fails to bridge the chasm between basic human decency and the rank opportunism and venality of Western leaders and their proxies. Just consider, for example, the words of Tony Blair, a man who never misses an opportunity to remind us of his perverse worldview. He said of Abdullah, “I knew him well and admired him greatly.”

This comes as little surprise when we consider Blair’s close ties to the Saudis, which in 2010 included a controversial role brokering deals between the Saudi oil company, PetroSaudi, and senior Chinese officials, netting him a fee of £41,000 per month and a two percent commission on each transaction.