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To: Oldeconomybuyer
"I thought the whole thing would take maximum three hours," he said. "But nine hours? That’s not only humiliating. It also doesn’t make any sense."

Hey, welcome to security, federal-government-style.

If they could make it any more inconvenient, I'm sure they would. Trust me, its not much better for us.

"Saudis are being collectively punished for the actions of a few."

The US and Saudis have had an exceedingly close relationship for 50 years. The Saudi government has been almost an extension of ours, and vice-versa; I think a case could be made that our foreign policy was essentially managed from Ryadh over the last decade.

US companies, and citizens, have had first shot at projects and financial opportunities in the Kingdom, and Saudis were treated as quasi-US citizens here. The level of trust between the two governments was really astounding.

And for years the Kingdom subsidized off-books operations by the CIA, helped our balance of payments by buying every weapons system to come down the pike, only to bury it in the desert in case we might need it some day. They have tolerated our support of Israel as one tolerates a friend's bad habits, and we have relied on them for advice in all of our dealings in the Muslim world, from Chechnya to Bosnia to Kosovo, and on.

It bought us a hole in the ground in downtown NYC, and friends who could not commiserate without laying blame at our feet, and friends who would not give any public support as we went after the killers in Afghanistan. Friends who provided 15 of 19 hijackers, but admitted none of it publicly.

In past years we have always understood the Kingdom's need to keep its support for us, and its friendship with us, quiet and under the table. In the past we accepted it. But no more.

The Saudis are not being punished for the actions of a few. Our entire relationship with them is being weighed, and found wanting, because they could not stand up publicly when it counted, because no Saudi has been able to express genuine sympathy and support when we expected it.

And because their policies are in conflict with those countries who did stand up. Saudi support for Chechen killers and Indian Muslim extremists, and Indonesians who slaughter their Christian neighbors, Saudi support for Philipino killers who cut the heads off of missionaries, in the aftermath of the attacks on us is no longer something we can simply ignore.

The Saudis need to know that our view of them has undergone a real, and dramatic change, and barring a "road to Damascus" change of direction their world will soon be rotated on its axis.

13 posted on 08/22/2002 5:48:57 AM PDT by marron
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To: marron
Bravo!
19 posted on 08/22/2002 5:57:56 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: marron
Good summary.

Beats my "Islamic Terrorists Go Home" lawn sign.

30 posted on 08/22/2002 6:34:51 AM PDT by norton
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To: marron
Could not have said it better myself if I had tried.
31 posted on 08/22/2002 6:43:43 AM PDT by wasp69
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To: marron
Your reply 13 really is a nice summation of what's happening twixt us and the Saudis, and I agree all the way through.

Them sand fleas have mighty big, and tender, egos.

As a collective, they exhibit the sense of privilege and entitlement the Kennedy family displays.

38 posted on 08/22/2002 8:04:55 AM PDT by jwfiv
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