Posted on 08/14/2002 4:44:46 PM PDT by Pokey78
For half a century, Saudi Arabia has been a key economic and strategic ally of the United States. As the kingdom’s wealth grew and the scale of its oil reserves became apparent, the links became ever more intense, culminating in the deployment of 500,000 American troops during the Gulf War. Since then, a once warm relationship has become ever more strained, as tensions within Saudi Arabia have grown, the Arab world’s anger with America has become intense and Washington’s suspicions of the country’s Islamic agenda have deepened. Almost a year after the September attacks, perpetrated largely by Saudi citizens, relations have reached rock-bottom. An influential US think tank has described Saudi Arabia as the “kernel of evil”; and Riyadh is now effectively ostracised by Washington because of its perceived refusal to co-operate in President Bush’s War on Terror or his plans to overthrow Saddam Hussein. For months, ever more critical comment of Saudia Arabia has been circulating in the American press, much of it inspired by Bush Administration officials. The country was reported still to be funding Islamic groups that were fronts for terrorism and anti-Western activism. It was said to be dragging its feet in the investigation of the al-Khobar barracks bombings and refusing US access to suspects said to have been arrested. Its clergy are said to have rallied Muslim opinion behind the Palestinian violence. And, most provocatively, Saudi Arabia has refused to counter the groundswell of support for bin Laden and al-Qaeda or provide intelligence on the terrorist network. The Saudis have been angered and bewildered by these reports. And despite all efforts by the Pentagon and White House to distance themselves from the explosive Rand Corporation’s accusations that Saudi Arabia had become America’s most dangerous opponent, mistrust has grown. President Bush insists that Saudi Arabia is still a valued ally. But the House of Saud believes — rightly — that the charges represent a significant strand of Washington’s thinking. This rift adds to the turmoil beneath the kingdom’s sleepy surface. As The Times reported on Wednesday, the contradictions between the religious establishment and the pro-Western ruling elite, the reformers and the zealots, the disillusioned younger generation and the old men in power are becoming sharper. They are exacerbated by the dynastic uncertainty as the royal family prepares for the death of King Fahd, and they are heightened by concern over oil prices and by anger over the Palestinian conflict. Saudi Arabia’s difficulty is its pursuit of two policies that were bound, in the end, to clash: the economic dependency on the American alliance and the self-appointed mission to guard and promote Islam, especially the puritanical Wahhabi version with which the House of Saud is identified. Western materialism and culture are anathema to the conservative and intolerent clergy; religious absolutism and punishments are seen in the West as infringements of human rights. The ruling family, itself deeply flawed, is caught in the clash. An exasperated Washington has been unable to force a nervous Saudi Government to make a choice. The decision therefore to exclude it from all discussion of post-Saddam Iraq is inevitable. It also makes sense. Committing the Saudi Government more deeply to the US would only further alienate a surly populace. That in turn would make the rulers less secure, the alliance with the US more vexed and the thrust of US policy in the region more uncertain. Until Saudi Arabia can resolve its own uncertainties, it can hardly be counted on to guarantee stability elsewhere in the Middle East.
We'll muddle through.
Angered, maybe. Bewildered--naaaaah. What would the Saudis think if some random country on the world scene-- say Paraguay--supplied from its citizens the large majority of people on a series of planes that crashed into the Qaabah stone and the Saudi Royal Palace? Suppose then that this country further was found to fund anti-Islamic terrorists, and had heavy anti-Arabic indoctrination of its citizens through a controlled and vitriolic press.
Would the (for example) Paraguayans be suprised and bewildered that the Saudis were upset? I think not.
It is only in the presence of a presumed essential PC attitude of "open-mindedness" that anyone in the US would give this bewildered drivel 5 seconds of attention.
That's a Paraquay I'd go for. We should certainly follow that example. Go, Praqauy, go!
Oh, shucks, you were just making it up.
js
Cynical you say? No, just pragmatic.
Doesn't that statement contradict itself? Anyway, given the way most people in Arabia think, democratic is not the same as moderate.
If you really want to be pragmatic about it, maybe we should find a smart, pro-U.S. prince and 'arrange' the succession to get him into power.
I wish it were the case that democracies weren't plagued by them too.
I'll go further and say, carve the damn place up. Time for some good old-fashioned colonialist/imperialist meddling. This time we will put things back together to suit American interests rather than British.
If King Abdullah of Jordan plays ball in the invasion of Iraq, we should restore him to his family's historical throne as the ruler of Mecca and Medina. Add the eastern Saudi oil fields and the southern half of Iraq with its oil. Combine it with Jordan and the West Bank. Call it the Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia.
Abdullah and his Hashemite heirs will be independent in the same sense as a Roman Empire vassal state. He will be free to do as he sees fit within his own nation, so long as he respects basic human rights, doesn't play silly-buggers with the price of oil, makes nice with his neighbors, and recognizes the overarching supremacy of American power in the Middle East.
The Hashemites have proven that they can make peace with Israel and furthermore that they know exactly how to deal with the Palestinian filth. Give them a free hand to do so. The Palestinians and their cause will be subsumed into the Kingdom of Arabia.
Israel will be brought willy-nilly to the negotiating table with Arabia. A lasting and equitable peace treaty will be signed, which preserves the right of the faithful of all religions to travel to Jerusalem, and for the first time the right of Christians and Jews to visit the Muslim holy places if they so choose.
The northern half of Iraq goes to the Kurds on the understanding that they not make trouble for our friends the Turks.
The House of Saud, the Wahhabi mullahs, and all medievalist Arab cockroaches who wish to live in 7th-century squalor, will be driven on camel-back into the southern and western wilderness of the former Saudia Arabia. The borders will then be sealed and all theproducts and influences of Western civilization will be taken away from them and their descendants forever. Not so much as a bicycle will remain to pollute their "holy" Islamic lunocracy.
Syria, Iran, Libya and any other troublemakers should then be put on notice that their nations face a similar fate unless they come along with us into the 21st Century.
With the control of the Middle Eastern oil thus gained, we use the proceeds to triple the size of our military, and dictate the terms of a new Pax Americana to the rest of the world, including Europe and China.
-ccm
Uh. Bull.
Please, don't think of it as stealing..
Think of it as repossession - for debts unsatisfied.
Semper Fi
Good point.
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