538
‘Worst nightmare’: anger and frustration as Gulf states bear brunt of war they did not start
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2026
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As a thought exercise, I was considering what the other countries in the middle east could have done to avoid this conflict.
I ended up with nothing reliable. They did not have sufficient power to address the problems in the Iranian regime. And even if they could, the US would likely just be attacking the next state on Israel's hit list and cause similar problems.
The only thing that might have gotten close, is to outspend the Zionists in their interference in US politics.
This has nothing to do with what they could have done to Iran. Iran didn't start this war, Trump (and Israel) did, and every single one of those countries has financially supported Trump.
They got the US leader they wanted. Now they have to accept that they are living in his demented reality.
They could have not funded him. They could have not propped him and his family up.
They thought they had a useful idiot.
They did, but he was still an idiot.
It's complicated, right? On the one hand, those Arab states couldn't have predicted this crazy US administration and had no say in the US people voting in somebody like Trump.
On the other hand, however, they are totally involved. First of all, they funneled a lot of money into Trump's election campaign and therefore are now reaping what they sowed. If you fund somebody like Trump, you get somebody like Trump. And all those conflicts in the regions are also fueled by Saudi, Qatari and Emirate money. You know who is also hosting and funding Hamas? Qatar. Who is funding all those extremist mosques? Saudi Arabia. So if they wanted peace in the region they had a lot of leverage to bring it, and they didn't.
There was saudi money behind the twitter takeover wasnt there?
Theyve actually contributed to this happening. But perhaps in a dumb way that doesnt give them any control.
It is conplicated agreed.
They certainly have enough agency to deal with the minor powers in the region. But Iran and Israel are too powerful to deal with, without some outside superpower.
Back in the second Bush Era the Saudi's heavily influenced the US and were able to convince them to deal with Saddam
But this time round it was the Zionists that contributed more. The Arab powers were also a lot more fragmented in terms of their strategy. They are rivals after all.
As a thought experiment, what do you think would have happened if they wound down their involvement with the u.s., and actually tried to come to their own arrangement with Iran? Maybe a united front of the OPEC countries would have been enough to give the middle finger to any country that supplied Israel with weapons...
Get in bed with china, make their own deals with African nations and india to get industrial capabilities up and running, and we'd see a very large and sudden swelling of the global south.
They could have closed down the American bases that Trump is using to attack Iran. That would have done the job.
Trump would have attacked from the sea. Though it would have prevented incoming attacks on their soil, their ships would still be caught in the middle.
USS Abraham Lincoln has to stay away from Iran because they keep attacking it with drones. Without bases in Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia, USA would not be able to sustain this war.
then they should have let that happen
If your running that thought experiment it's not just the Arab states funding trump and America.
Those same states could also have curtailed Iran's influence in the region as well including removing funding for the various military and terrorist groups they all have a hand in.
Frankly they have raked in the money while others suffer and now they are suffering because of it.
Meanwhile the orange toad is using the money they gave him to further his own agenda and using their countries as pawns.