Posted on 12/17/2003 1:37:22 PM PST by RoughDobermann
and families of American officials to leave Saudi Arabia...
One of my former employers had a "great" little program like this...
On the last day before every major holiday, they announced that "all non-essential employees" could leave at early...
No one left early!
The Saudi royal family has played with fire, and now is being burned. They might be the best thing for Saudi Arabia but they have funded and exported terrorism while playing at being Western when in the west. Their split personality has both sides despising them. They have made none happy, and are now boths enemy.
We can no longer come to their aid, our people will not allow it nor will their muslims allow us. There is nothing good on the horizon for Saudi Arabia, the home to islamic shrines. Islam will not allow it to join the world in peace nor modernize. Saudi Arabia will remain in darkness of slavery, war, and warlords and despots until it throws off islam which will not happen. The rest of the islamic world will fight to keep Saudi Arabia in darkness of fundamental islam(yes those who actually follow what is written).
There is no hope of freedom or joining the world. Just the razor edge of falling off the cliff the princes have straddled to keep the country from falling. That edge is cutting harder and harder, there is not much left between the princes and the abyss. It is just a matter of how long, 1 year or 50. The amazing thing is that they lasted this long in a world of clans.
Ultimately, I think the civilized world is going to arrange things so that the part with the oil is under acceptable government and the part with the shrines is cordoned off.
That said, as long as the global economy depends on oil, Saudi Arabia is indispensable. The Kingdom has the largest proven reserves of oil in the world, which are more that 21/2 times larger than Iraq and almost 12 times larger than the US. Moreover, the Kingdom is the largest source of exportable oil. Although the US gets only about 10% of its oil imports from the Kingdom, the effect on the world economy remains the same. All oil is fungible.
Should the supply of Saudi oil be disrupted significantly by a takeover by Islamic fundamentalists from within or for some other reason, the world economy will be affected tremendously. It will make the gas lines and inflation of the seventies pale in comparison. We will and should aid the Saudis to keep the oil flowing. We have advocated a more participatory form of government (a majelis) and other reforms. They should ween themselves away from dependence upon the 6 to 8 million foreign workers who run their hospitals, oil fields, airports, and even pick up the garbage.
I don't know what you mean by modernization, but Saudi Arabia is a very modern country in terms of infrastructure. The roads, airports, port facilities, electrical generation, telephones, etc. are the equal of almost any developed country on earth. It is the society that needs to make the transition to the 21st century, which is not atypical of Islamic countries. It will be a difficult transition, but we have a lot invested in the outcome.
I think you know what I ment. The country is populated by different "families" who would love to see power fall into their hands. Murder and crime rates have nothing to do with this place being a hell hole for its people no matter the benifits. I as a woman would never want to live there, and pity those who do. Lets not even get into their justice system, what a crock.
Cute you know what I mean. A mid-evil society with cars and planes is still a backward mid-evil society. There is no freedom there, nor can there be. No true islamic society can ever atain freedom. And thus always dissastisified people willing to join the revolution or fight jihad. Thus always the iron-fist rule.
Where are those oil wells, in populated portions of the country??? Can Saudi Arabia defend themselves from Europe and China/Asia?
Do you honestly think the world would allow their economies to falter? Islam is playing a very dangerous game and does not realize it. It might take down the royal family, but do you honestly think that the world will allow it to take down them also? Somehow I do not think that others will respect islam's holy land if it begins to affect them badly. You thought we got mean after 9-11, we have always played nice compaired to others.
LOL You seem to have bought into the cartoon version of Saudi Arabia that the media likes to portray. It is far from being a hell hole. Boring yes. There is sexual aparthied, but as long as you don't try to change the culture, it is bearable. My wife lived there five years with me and had no problem with it. She actually enjoyed it. There are plenty of expatriate Western women who work and live in Saudi Arabia. Women in Saudi society actually have a lot more power than you think.
There is a wide spectrum of the ways Islam is practiced throughout the world. Islam in Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, and the Kingdom, to name a few, is practiced much differently. The militant fundamentalists are the ones we need to deal with. Islam needs a reformation movement just like Christianity had.
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