[Paleopsych] middle east

[Michael Christopher]

>>The Bush's have a documented business relationship
with the Bin Ladens going back decades.<<

--I'm not sure it works to associate Bush with Bin
Laden. Obviously the Bushes have been connected to the
Bin Ladens through business, but there's no solid
evidence that the Bin Ladens are deeply involved with
Osama. There IS, however, the issue of reliance on
Saudi oil, and the connections between US policitians
and the Saudis in general. The Royal Family is widely
seen as corrupt, and there is likely some connection
between *some* Saudi officials and terrorism, through
the madrasas and hidden agreements with anti-American
groups. We aren't likely to call for Democracy in
Saudi, given the likelihood of an anti-American
elected government using oil to punish the US. So we
have to do two things: pressure the Saudis to
eliminate any links between Saudi officials and
anti-US groups (Al Qaeda attacks within the country
will probably do more for that than we could), and
explain the reason we pragmatically support an
authoritarian government while calling for Democracy
elsewhere. Supporting the Saudi Royals makes sense
given the alternatives, and it is also an ethical
compromise. It might be difficult for Bush to be
honest with the public on the issue, but if he has
integrity he should make the effort. More likely he
will ignore the Saudis, take credit for Syria leaving
Lebanon (the assassination might have more to do with
it, but pressure from the US and other countries
helps) and work on Iran. But at some point, Saudi is
going to go through some bumpy changes, and we don't
seem to have much of a plan for dealing with it
because it's such a hard sell, opposing a democratic
movement against a corruption-plagued authoritarian
government.

The attitude of many Conservatives seems to be "the
public doesn't understand these things. You can't
explain all the complexities," which I think is rather
belittling. The public should know as much as possible
about its foreign policy and should not have to rely
on simplistic talk of "eliminating evil". Many people
still believe there was a link between Saddam and 911,
and use the fallacious "prove there ISN'T a link"
argument to avoid dealing with the misinformation.
That's not encouraging, given the complexity of the
long-term war on terrorism.

Michael



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