Kakki, the Saudis ruling family is in a difficult position. They
want to hang onto their wealth and power -- to do that they have to
stay friendly with the West, but at the same time not alienate the
Muslim world. The two holiest places in Islam are in Saudia Arabia -
Mecca and Medina- and Saudi Arabia is called "the keeper of the holy
places". The ruling family's reluctant decision to allow American
troops on their soil during the last gulf war caused a rise in
Islamic radicalism inside the country. Places like Iran would love
to see the Saudi people overthrow the monarchy and become an Islamic
fundamentalist state. But so would countries like Syria and Iraq,
not because they care about the Islamic side of things, but because
they are socialist states and want to see the monarchy overthrown.
So really the ruling family has few friends in the Middle East, apart
from other ruling families, which is why they rely so heavily on
Western support. In order to keep all the balls in the air, the
ruling family gives generously to Islamic "charities" -- some of
which are genuine, some of which are not. They don't want to know
which is which. That way, they get to be seen to be helping the
Islamic cause, but can also claim they had no idea how the donations
are spent. It's notable that, for all his revolutionary talk of
overthrowing the Saudi ruling family, Osama bin Laden seems happy to
attack any other country in the world but Saudi Arabia. And to keep
their friends in the West sweet, the Saudis have allowed American oil
companies to develop Saudi oil, and have bought weapons systems from
British and American companies. So the Saudis are literally caught
between two opposing protection rackets.
Successive American administrations have understood that the Saudis
are in a difficult position, and haven't pushed the issue of Saudi
support for terrorism, but I sense George Bush is going to, although
it'll be done via diplomacy not war, and by trying to reduce the
West's reliance on Saudi oil. So Lori's gut feeling may very well
turn out to be right.
Sarah
At 9:11 PM -0800 02/20/2003, kakki wrote:
Honest question by me. Why would the Saudis officially want to support
terrorism against us? I'm not saying that aren't but why would they when
they get most of their income from the West and have something like $500
billion in holdings in the U.S., including the majority part of AOL-Time
Warner and CNN?
Are they playing both sides of the fence here?
