Saudi Arabia High On The Hit List

I was talking to a friend today and we briefly talked about the bombing in Saudi Arabia and the war in Iraq. The more we talked, the more I became convinced that the Saudis are much higher on the hit list than most people think.

From Khobar to the Cole; from 9/11 to 5/13, we have suffered the slings and arrows of our Saudi friendship. Saudi citizens planned and/or participated in each of these attacks. The Saudi government has been less than enthusiastic in their attempts to reign in these folks. Each time, the government has come out and said “we feel your pain, but we cannot do anything as these people have popular support.”

OK, maybe the Saudi government believes in the concept of dissention enough to allow these groups to “protest” their lives and the government’s willingness to work with the Americans. Maybe the King and his clan believe that these dissenters are peace loving and only want the best for all the people of Saudi Arabia.

Or maybe the Saudi government knows that their hold on power is tenuous at best. Perhaps they have realized that there is only one stupid mistake separating them from their oil riches and the hangman’s noose.

Either way, the Saudi government has done virtually nothing to end the indoctrination of the terrorists. The madrissas are still open. The clerics still spew anti-American hatred in the mosques everyday. There is no public campaign to discredit the terrorists.

Their terrorists are like our football players. They are figures held in high esteem. They are heroes, with the consequent difficulties in revealing the truth of their nature. It’s sad, but true that as a race we don’t want to know of the humanity of our heroes. For a government grasping at the last straws of their reign, becoming a hero killer would be a recipe for regime suicide.

And so the terrorists become stronger in Saudi Arabia as the government fears to check them. And as the government cows in fear, we grow more and more impatient with their dithering.

The talk coming out of Washington lately has been of the potential of a free Iraq. The human potential, the industrial potential and most importantly the oil production potential. The more I hear the talk of Iraq’s potential, the more I see the pressure being applied to the Saudi government.

The Saudis are going to be concerned enough with the human and industrial potential of a free Iraq to their north. The Saudis know that they won’t be able to compete in the marketplace of ideas, which will lead to more instability in their government. They know that their workforce isn’t educated well enough in the ways of true science (not Islamic science) to be able to compete in a truly competitive region. The Iraqis, having been a more secular nation than Saudi Arabia, are ahead in the education game. And the longer the Saudis continue with the fundamentalist Islamic government, the wider the gap will get.

The Saudi method of dealing with this in the past has been to export terrorists. Get rid of the worst elements of society quietly and live life as though nothing happened. And so long as the US was dependant on Saudi oil, everyone was basically, sort of, happy.

But now we are openly talking about Iraq being capable of producing 5 million barrels of oil per day. In other words, we could bring Iraq up to its pre-sanction level of production and replace Saudi Arabia’s oil production.

All of the sudden, the old paradigm of Saudi/Western relations is now in doubt. If we don’t need Saudi oil, why do we need the Saudi government?

I believe that Washington has been trying to send that message over the last few days. The Saudi government has been put on notice that it’s time to shape up or we will make sure that they get shipped out.

Question is: did Riyadh get the message? Only time will tell. But time is not a friend of the Saudi monarchy.

We started a chain reaction with Iraq. The entire balance of power in the region has changed. In order to truly complete our mission of liberating Iraq, we will probably have to take care of a few other problem governments along the way.

Old methods of retaining power are no longer acceptable. We have challenged every Middle Eastern government to prove to us how they will fit into a stable and free region. Those governments that rise up to the challenge will survive. Those that hide from it will fail. The rules have changed and the process of natural selection has begun.

Does the Saudi government have what it takes to retain power in the new regional structure? I don’t think so. And it doesn’t sound like the Administration does either.

I’m guessing that if Bush gets re-elected, we will find out the true plan for ensuring the liberation of Iraq. And the Janus-faced Saudi regime will be near the top of list.