Many people are rightly outraged at remarks from Saudi Crown Price and heir to the throne Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) over remarks calling Russian forces “terrorists” and vowing that Saudi Arabia could destroy Russia’s forces in Syria in a matter of three days.
While the statement from MBS is inaccurate and slanderous, it is also laughable. Saudi Arabia is not capable of a great deal of military power in spite of its expensively armed but poorly organised armed forces. Saudi is afraid to provoke a war with fellow US ally Qatar and its dipterous military meddling in the internal conflict in Yemen continues to starve and kill thousands of civilians, all without achieving any sort of military goal. The Houthi fighters Saudi aims to destroy are for all intents and purposes, winning the war.
The idea that Saudi could or even would take on Russia would be a bit like Brunei threatening to annihilate China or El Salvador threatening to destroy the American Army, it is simply black sadistic humour without any basis in reality.
The problem is that a man who may shortly become the leader of Saudi Arabia, a man whom has met with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could have the guts to issue such an undiplomatic and barbarous statement.
If Saudi has the right to be openly angry with Qatar due to remarks allegedly made by Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani speaking highly of Iran and Hezbollah, then of course Russia would not be acting unreasonably in having a similar response to threatening remarks from an important figure in the Saudi regime.
The fact is that Russia’s mature approach to diplomacy will more or less allow the remarks to go in one ear and out the other, knowing as Russia knows, that the remarks have no connection to the real world.
President Putin demonstrated this kind of maturity when the newly elected French President Emmaual Macron distorted Russian history, insulted Russian journalists, attempted to rhetorically meddle in Russian internal affairs and criticised Russian policy in the most guttural way, all while in front of an invited guest, the head of state of a larger and more powerful country.
Vladimir Putin did not match Macron’s insults but instead gave the young French leader a lesson in Russia’s history of relations with France. He then drew a parallel to Macron’s insult implying that Russian media is ‘Putin controlled’ by reminding the French leader that from the Russian perspective it is not clear if the French President is in a position to make French Foreign policy while France acts in Syria at the behest of NATO and specifically the United States.
Macron also insulted US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in saying that such men only understand the world in terms of power. Does this mean Macron sees the world in terms of weakness?
Macron topped it all off by implying that his homoerotic handshake with Donald Trump was “not innocent” and was somehow a ploy to force the US President to respect him.
MBS who is 31 and Macron who is 39 are both young men who even so, are immature for their age. They act with impunity simply because they’ve had the personally good fortune to achieve positions of power at a young age. While maturity in terms of age does not guarantee wisdom, MBS and Macron are manifest examples of the folly of youth. Both of these young men act as though their youth is tantamount to a kind of intellectual immortality where they can get away with treating their elders without respect and dignity.
Such individuals rarely last long, certainly not without being taught a few important lessons by life.
Impetuosity, youthful exuberance and a loose tongue of this variety are a recipe for disaster. Many other young leaders develop a sense of purpose and perspective at a young age. Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi is one such example as is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who was only 35 when he was first elected President in the year 2000. Assad remains beloved by his people due in great part to personal humility.
MBS and Macron still have a lot of growing up to do. Their arrogant boyish attitudes are not sufficient to sustain their positions for long. History has shown this to be the case time and time again.
The post Mohammed bin Salman and Emmanuel Macron: a triumph of arrogance over experience appeared first on The Duran.
Source