Bill, At 09:08 12/08/02 -0400, you wrote: >Keith, > >While the scenarios you mention may all occur, I feel that you are >imputing too much logic to the Bush contingent. My guess is that they are >simply trying to put the squeeze on Sa'ud and trying to help out a few >Congress people for the November elections. I bet you will see a change >in the polemics once the elections are over.
I hardly think so. The Saudis have been a thorn in the flesh of the Americans for too many years. For example, as swing producer in OPEC, SA has been able to manipulate oil prices for the last 20 years. Also, what about the many American deaths in recent years organised by terrorists paid for and organised out of SA? The authorities made no attempt to arrest the network even though they must know exactly who they are. (In the case of the most recent bombing, the Saudis have arrested a few Englishmen as terrorists even though all that they appear to have done is to organise a little whiskey smuggling!) The most the Saudis have done was to banish Osama bin Laden, but they didn't stop huge quantities of funds being funnelled to him from SA. In diplomatic terms, America has been treated with something akin to open contempt by the Saudis in the last 20 years but haven't responded in a heavy-handed way because of the importance of oil supplies to the US and Europe. But 11 September finally pushed America too far. (The ploy of somehow making Saddam Hussein the scapegoat must have been the personal contribution of Bush senior!) As for the logic of the Bush contingent I'll grant you that the President himself is not over-endowed in the greymatter department, but the people behind him (such as Wolfowitz) are certainly very bright kiddies indeed. I'm not normally a conspiracy-theory supporter but my guess is that the Carlyle group, Bush senior, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle and specialist advisors in the State department (and a few progressive Saudi Arabians) have been thinking about the Islamic fundamentalist problem intensely for two or three years now given the state of King Fahd's health. 11 September catalysed their ideas. You may be right but I'd lay odds of 10:1 on that my scenario is going to be nearer the mark. The polemics can't simply change on Bush's say-so because the underlying problems will still be there. By the time the November elections come along, I think Gulf War II will have already started and getting into its stride. (And by this I mean a much wider affair than merely anti-Iraq. ) . Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
