I would happily defer to someone more familiar with the topic than myself, but the House of Saud is pretty large and some of them are absolutely not friendly to the US. If I'm not mistaken, there were a few members of the royal family that were tied to the 9/11 attacks.
Again, I'm not an expert, but that's my understanding.
"Sapiens dicit: 'Ignoscere divinum est, sed noli pretium plenum pro pizza sero allata solvere.'" - Michelangelo
Dissenters in the royal house do not speak for official positions of the Saudi government any more than a random member of Congress sets policy for the US government. Individuals will differ in their opinions and politics in that royal family just as much as the in the British royals or in any non-royal family in any country. It would be unrealistic to expect anything different.
Defending the allegiance of the House of Saud is apparently an official Trump talking point.
Ditto: https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...0e7_story.html
The Injustice League or Legion of Doom: Trump, Kim, Vald, Erodogan, MBS.
Can do no wrong! Sidekick: Lindsey (there's no genocide of Armenians) Graham.
From The Powerline Blog:
"I'm not a security guard, I'm a security monitor..."...For now, I want to salute the contribution of Joshua Watson, 23 years old, who was one of Alshamrani’s three victims.
Watson graduated from the Naval Academy in June and was stationed at Pensacola because he wanted to be a Navy pilot. He was the “officer on deck” when Alshamrani’s rampage took place and apparently was in or near the classroom when Alshamrani began shooting. Despite being shot multiple times–at least five, according to his father–Watson was able to get away from the classroom and connect with first responders who were arriving at the base. He told them where the attack was taking place and gave them a description of the terrorist before dying.
The first responders were local policemen because the Pensacola Navy base is, like most U.S. military facilities, a gun-free zone. Joshua Watson was a rifle team captain at the Naval Academy. If he had been armed when Alshamrani began his rampage the outcome likely would have been different. Many, many other servicemen and women at Pensacola are perfectly competent to carry arms and do so away from the base. Bizarrely, not even the guards at Pensacola were armed....
Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
"The first responders were local policemen because the Pensacola Navy base is, like most U.S. military facilities, a gun-free zone."
Incredible...
They must feel soooo much safer this way.
Well, it's weird, because usually the Officer of the Day is armed, and a news article listed him as the Officer of the Day.
At least the OOD was armed in the Marines. We also had several enlisted sentries armed with M4s as part of the Internal Guard, as well. We almost had to shoot a foreign officer training with us because he was an African warlord that got drunk and whipped out his machete threatening people. Our duty load was an M9 loaded with one mag of M882 ball, Condition 3, and a spare mag on the belt.
For clarity's sake, this all being separate from the Provost Marshal's Office. Given that the watch officer on ships (or whatever the navy calls it) is armed, I'm surprised the OOD wasn't. Even as utterly afraid of guns as the US Navy is, the OOD should 100% be armed, even if you want the general status of your troops/sailors to be unarmed and a low protective posture. It's the entire point of the Internal Guard. Maybe the Navy treats the OOD more like a secretary to answer the phones during off-hours and do bitch work, IDK.
Last edited by TGS; 12-10-2019 at 08:10 PM.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer