To maintain its hegemony in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has chosen an extremely easy scapegoat. According to its version, Iran is trying to dominate this area through Hezbollah, its National Guards and now Houthi control over Yemen. The claim may not be altogether wrong. In this broken chain the main missing link is Israel, which, despite frequent and open violations of international borders, is given safe conduct. It must be rejoicing over this win-win situation where two oil producing powers without even glancing towards their biggest enemy are bent upon slaughtering each other. Had Nazi Germany, instead of occupying France, started its blitzkrieg against the socialist Soviet Union, Churchill would have fainted both with amazement and amusement. For him, no sight could have been more ecstatic than that of Nazism and socialism embracing each other in death and falling into a common grave. But to his dismay his dream remained unfulfilled. Today, in the Middle East, to the sheer delight of Israel, this old, wishful hegemonic design of pitting enemy against enemy is in the process of being materialised. Saudi Arabia has never failed to patronise and oblige the imperialist strategists sitting in the Pentagon. While Israel is a bottle-fed child of the US, the Saudis are its bread providers. In the year 2011-2012, Saudi Arabia purchased means of destruction worth $ 67 billion from the US. None of the newspapers cared to mention how in secrecy through the trade of blood and money the military-industrial complex is realising itself. And why would they do this since the same chunk of money runs through their veins as well? In these circumstances, the role of the US, which seems eager to sign a peace treaty with Iran, becomes quite paradoxical. But do not worry! Even in odd situations, the US is quite competent and in the habit of playing its cards correctly. Is it not supporting IS and its enemies in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon simultaneously? Has it not managed an unholy alliance between the holocaust and the emerging fascist Sovoboda party in Ukraine? Both victims and their bashers are intertwined in such a way that even the Jews living in Israel are refraining to point a finger at this phenomenon. Max Horkheimer correctly said: “The new order contradicts reason so fundamentally that reason does not dare to doubt it. Even the consciousness of oppression fades. The dimensions of this process are so superhuman that even the imagination, which has withstood the mutilation of mass culture, hesitates to derive this state of affairs from its social origin. Truth becomes ‘nothing but the successfulness of an idea’.”Pakistan, a burnt child who loves the fire, has so far resisted the temptation of jumping into the fray. A salto mortale (deadly jump), which is most likely to lead the aggressor direct into an inferno! However, Pakistan has limited options since one cannot bite the hand that feeds one’s stomach. Saudi riyals and Saudi oil both remain a serious weakness of the Pakistani ruling elite. After getting a satisfactory amount of pelf it is quite competent in repeating many grisly sights akin to the one by late Ziaul Haq on the day of Black September (September 15, 1970). Pakistan has some 8,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. Robert Fisk is precise in his analysis. In the Independent he states: “Pakistan is one of the most corrupt and unstable nations in South-west Asia. Bringing Pakistan — widely believed to have shipped second hand weapons to anti-government rebels in Syria via Saudi Arabia — into the Yemen conflict is not adding oil to the fire. It is adding fire to the oil.” Two allegations in one sentence; is there anyone to provide a rebuttal? But is there any need for it? Killing is the profession of generals. What else can be expected of them? This was Robert Fisk, who, somewhere during an uprising against Morsi, wrote that politicians can be corrupt but generals are invariably lethal. And what about those who before calling forth Thanatos are in the habit of satisfying with prey their Eros as well? The outcome of this war will be no different than the other wars initiated by imperialism in the rest of the Middle East. According to Wikileaks, “Le Canard Enchainé, that fabulous fountain of unimpeachable secret sources, has revealed this week in Paris that an American command cell has been fully operational in Saudi Arabia, run by CENTCOM General Lloyd Austin. So, all ‘coalition’ strikes against Yemen are under — what else — US command, because the Saudi ‘air force’ is, frankly, a joke.” This French newspaper has at least proved the immediate presence of imperialist might lurking behind the scene of this gory crime. Its destructive tolerance and benevolent neutrality have proved false. Robert Fisk inquires: “What will Saudi Arabia do when — not if — things go wrong in their war with the Shia Houthi rebels?” Saudis are not in the habit of thinking much. That is why they reach their nineties. Probably the time of this dynasty has come full circle. Apparently, it is about to perish. If this happens, which it probably will, after the destruction of Iraq, Syria and Libya, Israel too is likely to lose much of its significance for the imperial might. Probably feeling the imperialist’s ‘necrophilia’, which only likes cadavers, in the shape of individuals or states, Netanyahu decided to lament the father figure of Obama in front of the US Congress, an archetype of a mother figure to him. But probably sooner rather than later the time for the proxies will come to an end. The world is heading towards new chaos and all hope of salvage rests with the working class of the world. Once attained, its cognitive autonomy can create the possibility of a free society out of existing exploitative societies. (Concluded) The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com