Ally's 47 executions provokes big yawn from Uncle Sam

The Shi'ite half of the civil war in the Middle East is rightly stirred up by the mass 47 person execution in Sunni ruled Saudi Arabia, including top Shi’ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. What cost al-Nimr his noggin in the world's head-chopping captial? Nimr was detained in 2012 for organizing a protest demanding an end to discrimination against the Shi’ite minority in Saudi Arabia. He was tried for “disobeying the ruler” and “inciting sectarian strife,” based on sermons he gave. His killing provoked the Shi'ite majority in Iran to trash the Saudi embassy, leading to severed relations between the two regional giants. Shi'ite dominated Iraq may soon close the newly opened Saudi embassy in Baghdad as well. And Uncle Sam's response? Not willing to upset their best foreign customer for weapons of human destruction - over $80 billion since 2001 - someone at State opened the door at 3:00 AM to whisper that the US has "deep concerns" about so many heads flopping around on Saudi soil. We shouldn't be surprised by the American response. We're just following the time honored capitalist adage: "The customer is always right."