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

To: quehubo who wrote (35952)	8/5/2002 7:14:13 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

Perhaps you are the last well informed person in the USA to realize that SA is not our ally but our enemy and with Iraq out of the way SA will be paying for the consequences of their actions. Oh, surely not the last. Put me in the category of those who think the above statement is horse puckey.

To: quehubo who wrote (35952)	8/5/2002 5:17:41 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi quehubo; Re: "It is troublesome to hear that you consider SA's self serving control of oil prices, for which they have very little or no choice to do, but fail to consider their other chief export which is terrorism and instability." The basic error here is that you are confusing two completely different aspects of Saudi Arabia. They are not a single entity, any more than the USA is a single entity. The country is made up of millions of people, no two of whom are exactly alike. Saudi Arabia as a whole is an exporter of oil. A high percentage of the country believes in a fairly radical religion, and would like to spread the word to the rest of the world. Only a small percentage of that country would like to use terror. The majority of Saudi Arabia, and undeniably their government, is very afraid of instability, particularly Islamic fundamentalism. This is why the US government gets along fairly well with the Saudi government. This is in comparison to Afghanistan, where the government supported terrorism (but the people didn't), and Iraq, which is a secular socialist dictatorship. I realize that my view of the diplomatic reality is very different from yours. As far as deciding which one is true and which is an illusion, you might take into consideration the undeniable fact that my view of reality explains and is compatible with longstanding US policy (i.e. friendliness with Saudi Arabia). You're the one who is claiming that thousands of American diplomats over the course of many administrations are wrong. -- Carl