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| Axis of Evil |
| Saudis trying to leave us in the lurch? |
| 2002-03-18 |
The Saudis may be flirting with unintended consequences here. If they stick to their refusal to allow the US to make use of US-built Saudi military bases in an attack on Iraq, they won't stop that attack from occurring. What they will do is force the US to find a substitute for Saudi Arabia, resulting in the worst of both worlds for that dreadful, brutish tyranny: further marginalization by the US, and further destabilizing pressures after the fall of Saddam Hussein's similarly thuggish government. Exactly. And once Sammy is happily decomposing and a pro-American government is installed in Iraq, what do we need the Saudis for? (Think real hard now...) A pro-western secular state to their north, happily making lotsa oil money is the last thing the Saudis would want. And think of what a new regime in Baghdad would mean to Saudi Arabia. If Iraq were democratic, the despotic and corrupt Saudi regime would look by comparison even worse than it does now. A pro-American Iraq, democratic or not, would dramatically increase U.S. power in the region, devaluing the currency of two-faced Saudi "friendship." Even more ominous, the Bush administration has made clear its determination to carry the war on terror to any country that supports it. At some point that will mean going to the source--the financier of fanaticism, the homeland of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the Sept. 11 hijackers, the world's leading exporter of Islamic fundamentalism. For months the question has been whether Saudi Arabia would permit America to use its bases there to topple the terror-supporting regime in Baghdad. A year from now the question may be whether America will choose to use its bases in Iraq to topple the terror-supporting regime in Riyadh. No wonder Crown Prince Abdullah would rather talk about the Palestinians. See what I mean? When the Lesser of Two Evils is no longer the Lesser it's simply Evil. People like Bush (and me, but I'm not the decision maker) think in terms of Smiting Evil where it's found, especially when Evil thumps us first. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |