> Nick wrote: > In a way? How so? Our move to the UAE was strictly economical. They made > a better offer. >
No, it was all a "face" game. The Saudi royal family would have a US base in downtown Riyahd if their population would accept it, but they won't, which is why we were moved out into the desert in the first place. The Saudis are no different than Qatar or Kuwait: they want protection and they know the US offers it. The difference with the Saudis is that the royal family encourages their population to learn and practice Muslim extremism - and now those chickens are coming home to roost. So, in a way, Bin Laden and his Al Quaeda sympathizers forced the US out of Saudi Arabia but we're effectively still there. That is, any invasion or even internal coup would be repelled, in part, by the US. Here are the 2 strategic mistakes in a nutshell: (1.) Bin Laden thought the US would leave Saudi Arabia without invading Afghanistan. Didn't happen. Now not only does Bin Laden NOT have Afghanistan, but he's moved backwards in terms of weakening of royal family; they seem on guard now and are strengthening their power base. (2.) The US invasion of Iraq solidified in the Arab mind Al Quaeda's contention: that the US are imperialist crusaders at war with Islam who want to steal regional riches while killing the Muslims. All Arab countries including Iraq denounced Al Quaeda's attack and, for the most part (Saudis?), supported our invasion of Afghanistan. We lost the hearts and minds of the Arab world when Bush took Iraq and even had that not happened it was still hugely stupid because it's clearly more than we can handle. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:224781 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
