On the surface, this photograph from an event today at Al Murabba Palace in Saudi Arabia is just another unfortunate snapshot of our 43rd president being a dingus on the world stage. Below the surface, however, it's not so funny-haha.
They're called "Chop Squares."
CBS News: A condemned convict is brought into the courtyard, hands tied, and forced to bow before an executioner, who swings a huge sword amid cries from onlookers of "Allahu Akbar!" Arabic for "God is great."
Saudi Arabia is notorious for its public beheadings of criminals, homosexuals, women, Christians, witches and the like. Many of them innocent. Some of them children -- despite international sanctions against it. At least 136 public beheadings were carried out in Saudi Arabia in 2007. Perhaps you saw the gruesome footage of a public beheading in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911.
On yet another day when the American economy has been forced to genuflect before the Saudis, it's nice for our president to explicitly remind us that one of the world's most awful human rights violators is actively buying our sovereignty... at a discount.
UPDATE: Compare the executioner swords in the video below with the sword our president is playing with above. (Don't worry. The video is just an interview.)
UPDATE 2:
