Charen: How Strange (Where is the "no WMD" crowd on Saudi Arabia and 9-11?)

Townhall.com ^ | 6-16-03 | Mona Charen

[cgk]

How strange
Mona Charen (archive)

June 17, 2003 | Print | Send

Isn't it strange that the very same people who were prepared to give the United Nations weapons inspectors months and even years to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are screaming after just a few weeks that our failure to discover them is proof of a hoax?

And isn't it amazing that the very same people who believe Saddam never had weapons of mass destruction also believe that Hillary found out the truth about Monica only two days before Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony? And isn't it odd that the fierce feminist who bids fair to be the first presidential nominee of a major political party got there by playing up her role as long-suffering wife to a rogue? Her memoir could have been titled "A Rake's Wife's Progress."

And don't you love those slick new TV commercials the hand-chopping, women-oppressing Saudis are running on American television? If there is one thing 9-11 has clarified for most Americans, it is the corrupt bargain that two generations of policymakers (Democrat and Republican) have made with that foul regime. The tagline for these glossy, upbeat spots is something like, "The U.S. and Saudi Arabia: Partners Against Terror."

Ha. Who has bankrolled Al Qaeda and other terror groups? According to a United Nations Security Council report, Saudi Arabia has channeled some $500 million to Al Qaeda over the past decade. Who has sent proselytizers around the world to spread Wahhabism, the Muslim sect that finds purity and godliness in total intolerance and murder of the infidel? Who supplied 15 of the 19 murderers who gave us Sept. 11 and a majority of the detainees in Guantanamo? Who holds telethons for Palestinian terrorists on state TV?

After a Saudi residential neighborhood was hit by Al Qaeda in June, a Saudi spokesman explained that his government had really gotten the message that terror was a serious problem. Funny, why did they not get that message after 9-11?

Yes, yes, it is sometimes necessary to make deals with the devil in international affairs -- witness our alliance with Stalin against Hitler. But Americans have an unfortunate tendency to perfume these arrangements with generous sprays of fiction. Instead of keeping his rhetorical distance from the butcher in Moscow, Roosevelt encouraged a benign view of Stalin. Americans called him "Uncle Joe." And several generations of American policymakers have insisted upon calling Saudi Arabia a "moderate Arab state" and a "friend."

Someone once said a moderate Arab is one who believes in killing only Israeli civilians, not Americans. But even by that standard, it is not clear that Saudi Arabia passes the test. As for friendship, if your friends don't mind seeing your people incinerated in office buildings, who needs enemies?

Our "friends" the Saudis are currently engaged in a number of activities we'd be hard put to describe as affectionate. The Saudi state, according to the Center for Security Policy, currently underwrites the mortgages of about 80 percent of America's mosques, the better to exercise influence over the direction of Islam here. The Saudis are also engaged in a concerted effort to convert felons in our prisons to Wahhabi Islam. These prisoners are fertile soil for the anti-American, absolutist and conspiratorial theories of Wahhabism. And the Saudis also fund a large network of "influence operations," from supposed civil rights groups to charities, whose true function is to further the cause of radical Islam.

Saudi Arabia is a primitive nation. Polygamy is the order of the day, and women are kept in near bondage. Foreign workers are often treated like slaves. Thieves and adulteresses are stoned to death or are beheaded in public squares. The royal family lives in splendor and wretched excess, while the average person has trouble finding a job. The Saudis have experienced neither colonialism nor Enlightenment. Theirs is a 13th century society living with 21st century luxuries.

Strange that we democrats should call them friends.

©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Mona Charen | Read Charen's biography

[cgk]

Mona Charen ping...

[Puppage]

Isn't it strange that the very same people who were prepared to give the United Nations weapons inspectors months and even years to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are screaming after just a few weeks that our failure to discover them is proof of a hoax?

And, isn't it funny that it takes 10 weeks to pick an American Idol?

[cgk]

And, isn't it funny that it takes 10 weeks to pick an American Idol?

And five years to find Eric Rudolph right where they thought he was all along, but we still hear whining about how they haven't found Usama or Saddam?

[Puppage]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, we might hurt their self esteem.

[patj]

My daughter has the solution for finding the WMD's. We send over all the retirees from Florida with their metal detectors and let them look.

[My2Cents]

And how long did it take to find Sandra Levy's body?

[GoatWorship]

Strange that we democrats should call them friends.

Nice closing point there. The Dems only care about one thing: holding on to power. To do this they situate themselves opposite the republican establishment. Which meant defending Saddam, just as it will mean defending whatever enemy we have next.

Their mission is to undermine the interests of the establishment. Interests like security: They want to set suspected terrorists free to complete their missions, so they can say that Bush's security efforts failed. Interests like the economy: They want to undermine Bush's efforts to revitalize the economy with a tax cut, so they can blame Bush for the economy not being revitalized.

They feign compassion for minorities to gain minority votes, and make that all too clear when they close down a primary that threatens to nominate a minority candidate.

They promote welfare as help for the poor, which is like promoting quicksand as a safety net. In this respect they are crack dealers collecting votes in exchange for sustenance of an addiction.

These are the democrats simply being themselves. Nothing strange about that.

[cgk]

Shoot, you're right. Especially since we know they read FR!

[gcruse]

Uhm, Mona is not a Democrat. When she says, "we democrats," she's talking about all of us.

[OREALLY]

Are screaming after just a few weeks.....

I am new here and have just been reading here on free republic....Where's the WMD ? It makes me sick.

[Puppage]

Where's the WMD ? It makes me sick

You mean "they" screaming "where are they", or YOU screaming "where are they?"

[OREALLY]

Me asking how can they be screaming Where are the WMD's when our troops have only been in Iraq a few weeks.
It isn't a real big morale booster for our troops.....
We will find the WMD... I pray soon.

[Reagan Man]

Excellent stuff.

Mona Charen nails the Saudi's for what they are.

Republicans need to elect more GOP Senators in 2004 and get PresBush that 60 seat fillibuster proof majority, so we can get ANWR open for drilling. The US needs to become more energy self sufficient and ASAP. It's critical to America's economic well being and ultimate survivial.

[Reagan Man]

Check this out. An excellent article by Mona Charen.

[Puppage]

We will find the WMD... I pray soon

I'm with ya there!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Read some of the articles on the bump list like "Bush Doctrine Unfolds"

Bush Doctrine Unfolds :

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Bush Doctrine Unfold , click below:
	click here >>>	Bush Doctrine Unfold	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)

[Emma]

Isn't it strange that the very same people who were prepared to give the United Nations weapons inspectors months and even years to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are screaming after just a few weeks that our failure to discover them is proof of a hoax?

not when we were told that the iraqis were 45 minutes from firing the weapons. the argument against the inspections angle has always been the urgent need to do something about a threat. its logically consistent to demand weapons be found sooner given the invasion.

[swarthyguy]

All this spewing of words would mean something if the Govt would do something about the Saudis.

Apart from hosting them at Crawford. Our friends, y'know....

Where is the administration?

[Reagan Man]

According to what's been reported by the media, there are over 900 sites in Iraq, that are known to be associated with WMD. The last I heard, US investigators have been to roughly 300+. That means only 1/3rds of the known sites have been visited and gone over by the experts. The fact is, Saddam's WMD have either been removed, destroyed or hidden. I believe its a combination of all three.

I still think its way to early to reach any definitive conclusions about what happened to Saddam's WMD. A rush to judegment is under way by those who were against Operation Iraqi Freedom. Some folks like jumping to conclusions. As of right now, the vast majority of Amertican's don't care about locating the WMD in Iraq. They're confident Saddam had WMD in the past and aren't upset that so far, none have been found. American's trust PresBushes decision to take out Saddam's regime, free the Iraqi people and bring some stability to the region.