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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (18684)	2/12/2002 4:57:04 PM
From: frankw1900	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

insightful rant... Rant! Are you saying I exagerate when I claim Saudi Arabia is medieval Medina with guns, cars and rice krispees? That's exactly what it is. Benzes instead of camels and horses. University curricula less advanced than that of the University of Paris 500 years ago. All supported by a flow of money allowing them an average household with six children and non of the civic infrastructure internally generated. Saudi Arabia is an order more primitive than Afghanistan which has no functioning university, few lower schools, an appalling rate of illteracy, no functioning financial system, and no government. The utterly parasitical mullah caste personified by the Saudi family are corrupt beyond redemption, supported by five or six security services half of which are for the purpose of keeping an eye on members of the ruling family. You say the place is a powder keg. It's not that impressive. It's a few straws and the first gust of wind will blow it away. That's why all the insightful wealthy folk have moved assets abroad and have residences elswhere. They want a place to land when the wind picks them up. They have bluffed the US the last ten years. There is no need to consult them on middle east policy. Apart from some money they have nothing, and aren't hard men like S. Hussein and Asad. The worst they are is callous like the Iranian mullahs - these are folk who give their spiritual life emotional "depth" by imposing suffering on others. The 'other' has become a theoretical object as it always does for fanatics and most insulated wealthy folk. They aren't hands on like Hussein (a psychopath), they're clerics with a nasty line of invective but are divorced from reality and those in the most powerful positions are gaga, as well. What they mean when they say there will be social unrest if theological/social liberalzation is attempted is that the nastier wahabbist members of the royal family will get out the knives and a lot of folk will have to kill their half brothers, cousins, uncles, fathers and grandfathers. Well, that happened in medieval times and its a medieval country - what's the big deal? There's only about 5000 of them. It's the price of medieval family tyranny - you don't have elections. Time W re-read Machievelli, finds some non wahabbist members of the family, and gets to work with them. Time's running out. Ataturk broke a few eggs when he cooked his omelette. Gertrude got it right. There's no there, there.