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How Come?

Saudis scratch their heads, try to figure out why just about everywhere you find Islamo-terror, you find Saudis.  Are Saudis not blessed with wealth that bubbles out of the ground?

“Why are Saudi youngsters attempting to change the world through extremist terrorist thinking and through spreading death in all parts of the world? Why are they forcing the world to think of the Saudis only as candidates for suicide bombings anywhere?… Surely, the economic, social, academic, and political opportunities provided to young Saudis in their country are sufficient to enable them to preserve their character and tolerance… Yet they nevertheless are easy prey for terrorist organizations, and constitute a generous and self-renewing source of suicide [bombers]. What justification could there be for [the fact that] the Saudis are so susceptible to extremist and terrorist mentality?” 

…

“We must neither ignore nor discount these facts. We are facing a ‘problem’: it is easy to recruit young Saudis [for terrorist activities], and they easily get mixed up in all the world’s problems. To be sure, these problems must [first] be branded with the mark of fundamentalism, so that every national crisis is regarded… as a new Battle of Badr, requiring men to swear allegiance to death - and there are many such [volunteers]… Have not some Saudi clerics openly, [albeit] subtly, declared bin Laden to be a ‘martyrdom-seeker gone astray’? As if this very same bin Laden had not put the [entire] Islamic world to the torch and thrown it several centuries back in time…”  

I’m sure the reasons for that are very complex.  Here’s a couple of thoughts.  Lose the subtlety. Your rulers are indolent autocratic layabouts who have mistaken cars, computers, and various luxuries and conveniences for modernism. Meanwhile, in a devil’s deal with the mullahs, they allowed them to pump 14th hatred into the brains of their youth. Youth scratch around for meaning in life, what do they find? Violent jihad.  Belated efforts to control the flow of money, squelch the homegrown terrorism and its export … little and late. 

In fairness, it’s not like the Saudis started from a good place.  A collection of backward tribes of semi-nomads heavily influenced by Wahabism, who really can’t properly be described even as medieval, suddenly on the receiving end of insane amounts of wealth  pumped out of the ground on their behalf.  As a social experiment, it might be hard to dream up a more explosive mix.  Except maybe desperate 20th-century Germans still playing 19th-century world domination games, eager to blame others for their problems and tapping into a truly medieval mindset to do it. Or Russian serfs and Chinese peasants cynically and murderously manipulated by intellectuals into thinking they could leapfrog history …  OK, we could play that game all day. Back to the matter at hand.  

The Saudi “intellectual” answer has been to an attempt to leapfrog backwards.  Saudi Islamic extremists want to take us all back with them, to the golden age of Islamic terror, when it was spreading across the face of the earth.

The columnists here denouce Saudi denial, but also blame Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians. Another blames it on Islamist websites heavily targeting Saudi youth.  Have to wonder why that works for them.  Not seeing anyone here stabbing too deep at the heart of the matter.

But it is in any case is a start.  A little bit of self-consciousness and embarrassment. As long as we’ve got the Saudis on the couch, you know what they say. It’s never too late to stop having had a bad childhood.

Topics: al qaeda, saudi arabia

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:32 am on Saturday, September 15, 2007

11 Responses to “How Come?”

1. Uncle Kenny Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 11:00 am

   It’s difficult to avoid a rant when considering the Saudis. You failed to mention that they corrupt our own politicians and “leaders” with money, Bush I and Carter, most notably. A few years down the road, it will be obvious to everyone not speaking Arabic that the Saudis have been an enemy since forever and our principal enemy since the end of the cold war.

   Worse, the Saudi example has taught the Chinese that our politicians are for sale and the Clintons are now cashing their checks. Who will stand up and say “enough!”

2. RebeccaH Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 11:07 am

   This is disingenuousness by the Saudi press at best, and Islamic taqiyah at worst. Even now the Saudis are pumping Wahabbi money into mosques around the world, promoting feudalism and jihad, because that’s what they believe in, and it’s what they believe the rest of the world should submit to. Everyone rattles on about the Iranians, but if you ask me, the Saudis are, and always have been, the real enemy.

3. tanstaafl Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 11:12 am

   “Surely, the economic, social, academic, and political opportunities provided to young Saudis in their country are sufficient to enable them to preserve their character and tolerance…”

   Apparently not.

   “Another blames it on Islamist websites heavily targeting Saudi youth. Have to wonder why that works for them. Not seeing anyone here stabbing too deep at the heart of the matter.”

   Since the bulk of young recruits for suicide missions inside Iraq (who have been funneled in through Syria) are, reportedly, young Saudis, one is inclined to ask…why are Saudi youth particularly susceptible to the call of suicide missions and “martyrdom” ?

   From a video I saw of a former “terrorist” describing motivation, he made the point (among others) that Saudi youth are particularly frustrated at never seeing a whole unburkh’ed woman and are thus (at the age of raging hormones) especially vulnerable to the notion of the delights they will (finally !) experience in Paradise.

   For suicide bombers everywhere, they are brainwashed into believing that great glories attach to you as a Shaheed as well as to your surviving family members.

4. People for the Ethical Treatment of Africans [Dan Collins] Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am

   […] on Saudi root causes: The columnists here denouce Saudi denial, but also blame Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians. Another […]

5. Robert Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

   the Sa’uds regard the propensity of their most troublesome subjects to blow themselves to smithereens in Iraq as a big win. They are just hoping that the war does not end before they have cleaned out the closet.

6. SoldiersDad Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

   Jules,

   Having done my time in the Magic Kingdom way back when Jimmah was the Man…this is the reason and only reason…

   “Youth scratch around for meaning in life, what do they find? Violent jihad. ”

   A percentage of every population in the the world has ‘Activists”…people who devote their lives to a cause. Saudi Youth don’t really have any causes they can devote themselves to other than violent jihad as public protest isn’t allowed.

   In the West we have hundeds of causes to join…and pretty much regardless of how whacked out the cause is…some national political leader will publicly champion your cause. If your cause gets real attention…someone will even pass a law for you…no matter how insane

   For example in Maine…it is against the law for a logger to crap in the woods…bears outnumber the loggers 1,000 to 1.

7. theospark Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 4:30 pm

   When the oil runs out the Saudis will be back to being a bunch of inbred camel-shaggers with a lot of sand.

8. saltydog Says:
   September 15th, 2007 at 7:33 pm

   It is interesting to compare the pre-Soviet Russians, the Chinese, etal, with the Saudis. All of these systems claim the life of their people; i.e., unlike Americans, your right to your own life isn’t recognized, every life is owned by the state (whether we are talking about a secular state (such as Iraq), or a theocracy (Iran and Saudi Arabia), or a partial theocracy.

   In Arabia, however, because of the wealth handed to them by the efforts of the West, they have managed to offer the supposedly free life for all people, from food and shelter to health care, etc., that was the raison d’etre for totalitarian government. These are a people who mostly live without want of the physical necessities of life. Is this all that human life requires?

   What happens to the person who is well-fed, clothed, and sheltered without any effort on his part? Is that all that is necessary for the survival of a human being? What happens when the only intellectual life allowed the average Saudi man is the literal memorization of a religious book? What happens when someone who has managed to be educated in the requirements of life on earth can find no outlet for his knowledge? What happens to anyone who wants to live on earth?

   The point made above about the frustrations of young men (and women) who’s nature is perverted by the religious ideals of his society is also of primary importance. If one is not allowed to accomplish the requirements of living on this earth, who can blame them for looking to the next? (It is telling that their paradise is one many (most?) adolescent boys would recognize.)

   These are just a few questions that came immediately to mind.

   While I agree with Rebecca that Saudi Arabia is a major enemy of this country, I do not agree that it lessens Iran’s part in the on-going war. They started it all and provided the impetus to the other countries to engage the West, and has shown the rest the way. Most importantly, they have been successful against us and have suffered almost no consequences. Iran has gotten away with using terror tactics and proxies for almost 30 years. The danger from the Saudis is different: the building of Mosques all over the world, and stocking them with leaders who preach hatred for all infidels is a more subtle method of take-over, and more dangerous in our open society, in the long run. The relatively few individuals who go off on Jihad are overt and more easily dealt with. They also offer a cover for the Saudis, as they fight them within the Kingdom, and give them the facade of an ally. Meanwhile, they continue to build Mosques and spread their virulent ideology all over the world.

   Until we get people in office who do not cozy up to the Kingdom, we will be in grave danger. And I’ll go further and say that it is a danger to which we have been philosophically unarmed, which is how we got here in the first place.

9. tanstaafl Says:
   September 16th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

   The Kingdom is many contradictory Kingdoms.

   There is not a monolithic Saudi Arabia any more than there is a monolithic Pakistan.

   While building Madrassas & disseminating Wahabbi hate speech, others in the Kingdom know they’re actually #1 on Osama’s hit list.

   Quite confusing, I wish someone would clear it all up.

10. Dave Surls Says:
    September 16th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    “it is against the law for a logger to crap in the woods…”

    How would you like to be the guy in charge of collecting the evidence?

11. Dave Surls Says:
    September 16th, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    I’m just glad I’m not a cop in Maine.

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