Saudis wonder, will they be next?

The Guardian (U.K.) ^ | 05/01/03 | David Hirst

[John Lenin]

It's fun playing eeny, meenie, miney, moe with Arab dictators. Keeps them on their toes.

[Servant of the Nine]

Saudis wonder, will they be next?

How paranoid can you get?

First: Syria
Second: The Lebanon:
Third Iran
Fourth: Saudi Arabia.

They need to learn to wait their turn.

So9

[Anamensis]

Saudi, Syria, Iran, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, China, France, Germany... Canada... you're ALL next!!!

[Incorrigible]

Wondering....

[DED]

We don't really NEED a NEXT. If we're successful in building a republic in Iraq, the repressive Arab regimes are ALL GONE, and they jolly well know it.

RX for Iraq: Constitution FIRST, elections AFTER. No Islamic state.

[Anamensis]

It is fun, isn't it? Oh, such dark fantasies I have:

"House of Saud, on the count of three I'm blowing you up! One... BOOM!!! Yeah, I lied."

[Duke Nukum]

I think we have to go after the Saudi's and some point, to get our bases back. But I really think Cuba should be next.

[FreedomCalls]

Yes, oh yes!

Wahabbism is the fetid stinking rotten core of what is wrong with the Middle East. Cut out the cancer and the healing can begin.

[McGavin999]

The way to bring about reform in SA is to cut the allowances of most of the royal family. Too much money in one spot. That money should be spent on bringing in industry and putting the people to work, improving their lives (they'd be amazed how their self-esteem would be raised if they brought home a paycheck). It would also keep the people so busy working and living life they wouldn't have the time or energy to worry about jihad.

[DED]

The royal family has literally HUNDREDS of princes living off the country's oil. I rather liked the idea put forth recently that would spread Iraq's oil money among the population - now THAT would have put the fear of Allah in the Saudi princes!!!

[Filibuster_60]

They have long been caught between a dependence on the US and a deeply anti-American Saudi public. The Iraq war brought this contradiction to a head.

IMO Saudi Arabia doesn't need "regime change" - it needs "people change" damn it!

We're okay with any Saudi government - dictatorial or otherwise - as long as it fundamentally respects US power and sells us oil. On the other hand, how much longer should we tolerate the vehement anti-Americanism of the Saudi public - you know, the 80-90% of Saudis who still think OBL's cause is just?

[EternalVigilance]

"As well as being a continuous source of anger at the west, Palestine was always a symptom of the Arabs' frustration with their own systems - and now you have Iraq added to that," said a western diplomat.

Yeah, because it has been the policy of Arab 'leaders' to use Israel as a scapegoat to take the attention of their people off the fact that they are living in a tyrannical hellhole.

Ever notice that the root of the word 'diplomat' is 'dip'...?

[Joe Bonforte]

I think this reporter has got it exactly backwards. I don't think the Saudis threw us out - I think we pulled out.

And for very good reason. We now have plenty of alternatives for basing our forces in the Middle East. Pulling out means we are not beholden to them in any way. When Iraqi oil gets pumping, we and the rest of the world won't be dependent on Saudi oil either.

At that point, we can sit back and let the unrest begin. The House of Saud is doomed (thank goodness) and we just need to be patient enough for it to collapse. Hopefully by then, they will have a free, democratic, and prosperous neighbor, and their people will not be so eager to saddle themselves with another autocratic, corrupt regime.

[Tall_Texan]

"September 11 gave them the opportunity to break that - to portray us as the kernel of evil and fount of terror."

Nice imagery, there, Prince!

Memo to Bush Speechwriters - this sounds like future State of the Union Address material.

[ellery]

Wow, Abdullah is the second Arab leader (after boy Assad) to all of a sudden be remade in the media as "reform minded" in the wake of Iraq's liberation. Seems to me that's a very good sign.

[faithincowboys]

preposterous...

[Maynerd]

Yet, bases or no bases, the regime's central dilemma will endure so long as Palestinian and Iraqi miseries do. And with them, Arab hatred of America.

Absurd statement. If Iraq and "Palestine" become Switzerland tomorrow their hatred would not abate. They hate us because we are different, powerful, are women are not pieces of property.

The Arabs are the cultural equivalent of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. They externalize all of their problems and faults and are consumed by hatred and jealosy.

Nothing is going to satiate their hatred until their culture is transformed by "western enlightenment."

[microgood]

The Saudi's don't have a military to speak of. A morning exercise.

[411 freedom fighter]

Syria tried to butt in line but Korea is next.