The Saudi Crown Prince's Fortress Mentality

The Wall Street Journal has detailed how Iran-backed Houthi militants are tightening the screws on Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the portrait is devastating. MBS, who was the chief architect of the disastrous 2015 military campaign in Yemen meant to showcase Saudi strength and check Iran, is now being shuttled between heavily guarded palaces and doomsday bunkers with a hand-picked Praetorian guard loyal only to him. Fourteen people were killed at the Riyadh airport, the airport itself is shut down until at least October 17th, and the Saudi population has been bombarded with ballistic missile and drone alerts so constantly that authorities actually turned off the emergency alert system — only for a devastating attack to hit the airport without warning. "I mean, he's basically you've got a Middle Eastern leader with his own like hand-picked janissaries and Praetorian guard which are shuttling him between palaces in bunkers while his city remains under attack," Saagar said.