She did have a good idea.
Now read this. Pretty soon maybe we can be at war with the whole middle East. That will be peachy, won't it?
(CNN) -- As the United States tries to round up support for possible military action against Iraq, a key question centers on the U.S. relationship with other countries in the Persian Gulf region -- chiefly, Saudi Arabia.
The two countries have had a 60-year alliance, built on mutual need: In exchange for oil, the United States would defend the Saudi kingdom.
But since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the basic formula that has worked for so long is getting a closer look. In the words of one U.S. official, U.S. and Saudi officials have been "forced to confront all the issues they have ignored."
"The Saudi relationship with the United States has deteriorated to a point where I can describe it, if I want to be melodramatic, as one that's on the verge of divorce," says Youssef Ibrahim of the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan research organization dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world.
Publicly, both governments deny reports of a serious rift.
But that's what appeared to be on display at last spring's summit between President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in Crawford, Texas. An angry Abdullah refused to join Bush at a press conference there, and Bush was adamant in refusing to tone down his support for Israel.
Privately, Washington and Riyadh point to a long list of grievances.
The Saudi list includes a report written for the Pentagon which reportedly concluded that Saudi Arabia is "the enemy."
The Saudis also point to a decision by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to fingerprint all Saudi men visiting the United States between the ages of 16 and 45 starting October 1. It also perceives a U.S. bias toward Israel.
The United States criticizes Saudi Arabia for refusing to provide enough intelligence on the 15 Saudi nationals among the 19 hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks. U.S. officials also accuse the Saudis of exporting and funding radical Islam, and wonder whether Saudi Arabia would support a war against Iraq.
With 5,000 U.S. troops based at Prince Sultan air base in the Saudi desert, in close proximity to Iraq, U.S. officials say Saudi support would be important in the event of a war. At the very least, they say, U.S. pilots would need to use Saudi airspace.
Now, says one State Department official, both nations are looking for common ground.
"At the end of the day, there isn't a lot of leverage we can exercise on one another," the official says. "The real strength of this relationship is that we both want to make it work, despite all our differences." |
