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| Arabia |
| The War in Saudi Arabia is to the Death |
| 2005-07-29 |
| July 29, 2005: There are three Middle Eastern battlegrounds for Islamic terrorists; Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia. This last one gets the least amount of attention, despite the fact that Saudi Arabia has been the source of most of the money, ideology and people dedicated to Islamic terrorism. Since the invasion of Iraq, the Islamic radicals in Saudi Arabia have been at war with their own government. A two decade truce is over, and now the battle is to the death. Well, a temporary death. The al Saud family had to go through this in the 1930s, when the more radical Islamic warriors in the kingdom decided to carry their jihad to neighboring countries. Does this sound familiar? The king, and founder, of the recently established Saudi Arabia, realized that this would only mean trouble for his newly minted kingdom. So the king hit back hard, and kept killing the Islamic radicals until the survivors convinced him that there would be no more trouble. It was forty years before Islamic radicals felt strong enough to take on the king once more. They lost again, but instead of stamping out (ie, killing) most of the Islamic radicals, the new king (son of the old king) made a deal with them. The Islamic radicals could freely teach their hatred in the kingdomâs schools, and support Islamic radicalism overseas. But they had to keep the peace at home. That truce lasted until 2003. Now itâs back to the 1930s way of doing things. The Saudis have killed or captured nearly all the Islamic radical leadership. The âmost wantedâ list is now largely composed of second string terrorists. But the Islamic radicals are not destroyed yet. The fighting in Iraq has created some new, and more experienced, Saudi Islamic terrorists. While several thousand Saudis have gone to Iraq, most have either died as suicide bombers, been killed by more experienced American troops, or come home discouraged (at the fact that most of the people killed, by terrorist attacks, in Iraq, have been Iraqi civilians.) But hundreds of hardened, experienced, and still bloody minded Saudi Islamic terrorists have returned from Iraq. These guys are out for blood, and are willing to die for the cause. But it gets worse. Another new development, since the 1930s, is the number of Moslems entering the kingdom each year on pilgrimage (Hadj) to the Moslem holy places. Thatâs over three million foreigners entering the kingdom in a short period of time each year. There has always been a problem with some of them illegally staying on. Some of the Islamic terrorists already killed or arrested in the kingdom have been such men. It is feared there will be more, no matter how carefully Saudi security people scrutinizes the arriving pilgrims. The Saudi royal family know that this is a fight to the death. The 1980s compromise didnât work, and this time around the battle has gone old school. But with a lot of new technology. The United States is providing a lot of technical help in the battle. Indirectly, the Saudis are even getting help from Israel, which has supplied the U.S. with many new ideas, and equipment, for fighting terrorism. The war on terror does indeed make strange bedfellows. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 Is there any war that is not "to the death"? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-07-29 20:17 |
| #6 Why do bad things happen to good people? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-07-29 18:13 |
| #5 the royal family now consists of many subclans which are not too friendly with each other this provides many little niches for terrorists Such as the two "princes" who died in mysterious circumstances in the year after 9/11. One of them died of exposure in the desert, the other died in a single-car accident on the way to the first's funeral. Both were later tied to al-Qaeda funding. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-07-29 12:58 |
| #4 Unless the Saudis forget the lesson of the "1908 compormise" that you can't buy off the Jihadis, it's better for them to win. Get the terrorists first, then worry about the princes. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-07-29 12:28 |
| #3 This is definitely a "Wish they could both lose" situation. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2005-07-29 12:04 |
| #2 the royal family now consists of many subclans which are not too friendly with each other this provides many little niches for terrorists strategypage knows this but I'm a little surprized they don't admit it |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-07-29 12:03 |
| #1 "The Saudi royal family know that this is a fight to the death..." In that case, best of luck to both sides! |
| Posted by: Hyper 2005-07-29 11:36 |