If only Sarah Saga were trying to crash a men's-only golf club. Then she and those like her might be guaranteed some sustained media coverage. As it is, this intrepid 23-year-old American mother is now holed up with her two children in the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah in a desperate bid for freedom.
Back in September Prince Bandar, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S., claimed in this newspaper it is "absolutely not true" that any American women were in his country against their will. Ms. Saga's flight to the consulate suggests otherwise. For under Saudi law no woman--even an American--is free to leave that country if her father or husband forbids it.
If we have learned anything since 9/11, it's the strong national interest all Americans share in letting the world know there will be consequences for molesting an American abroad. So long as the Saudis insist on the dismal status quo, we can't understand why any U.S. Administration would even consider issuing another Saudi visa or repatriating another Saudi detainee from Guantanamo.
As soon as the Iraqi oil fields are back in full production, and the strategic petroleum reserve is topped off, President Bush should deliver the same message to the Saudis that Moses delivered to Pharaoh Let my people go. If the Saudis refuse, we should inflict such destruction on them that they wish they were in Pharaoh's Egypt, suffering the plagues and curses God loosed on Egypt.
The Saudi treatment of women, in general, is appalling. The Saudi treatment of these American women is utterly unacceptable. There are energy security concerns that must be considered, when dealing with the Saudis, but no American government should tolerate the abuse and false imprisonment of any American citizen by any government. Sarah Saga, and all of her non-Saudi sisters, must be permitted to come home, with their children.
Riyadh delenda est! Posted by Cato the Youngest at 04:38 PM