Saudi Arabia is a nation that arrested a teen a few years back (for protesting) and sentenced him to death by crucifixion (a story that was widely covered but has since been forgotten by the mainstream media. The boy, now in his twenties and as far as I can tell, is still awaiting his fate in jail nearly half a decade later).
It is a country that “avoids” hospitals, schools, and other humanitarian targets in Yemen yet whose bombs invariably find these targets at every opportunity (when included on a list of countries that harm children last year, it blackmailed the UN into striking its name off; a short-lived endeavor since the UN has included the nation once more for “683 child casualties during 2016, and… 38 attacks on schools and hospitals“).
Trying to cause every human rights atrocity in the book in a relatively small nation is one matter; now Saudi Arabia is threatening an all-out war with Iran, a conflict that would (like Syria before it) draw in all the major powers.
A pro-Saudi Government publication, Al-Ridyadh, has released a video created to “mimic the reality, the prestige of the Saudi Armed Forces, and its deterrents against foreign ambitions, especially Iranian threats.”
The video is made entirely with CGI and for some reason filmed in English with Arabic subtitles. It begins with a CGI Saudi ship firing on a few smaller Iranian ships. After decimating the Iranian ships with missiles and Gatling guns, the video switches over to the Saudi Armed Forces control center as Patriot missiles are fired to intercept incoming Iranian missiles, inter-spaced with a scene depicting Saudi Tornado fighter-bombers destroying a lone Iranian jet. A barrage of surface-to-surface rockets is fired, destroying Iranian infrastructure including a nuclear power plant.
After much destruction, landing craft deploy Abrams tanks and Saudi troops parachute in to surround an Iranian compound where a poorly-animated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is shown trembling in fear as he surrenders.
Iranian civilians cheer for the Saudis as liberators in this… idealistic… scenario. Many Iranian flags are also inexplicably destroyed/ burned/ blown apart and lowered. The Twittersphere was less than impressed:
In the delusional world of Saudi Arabia, Saudis invade Iran, take over the country and are greeted as liberators by Iranians who hold MBS posters.
You can’t make this shit up. Try not to laugh. pic.twitter.com/9rOSoPVsJu
— Serge (@Zinvor) December 17, 2017
The video purposely trivializes the potential Iranian response (not to mention Russian support for Iran and US support for Saudi Arabia) in order to make war with Iran more palatable; a war between the two would be a likely catalyst for World War 3.
