The Saudi Arabians are good people When I attended the U.S. Army military police (MP) officer basic course, there were three representatives from Saudi Arabia who attended the course with us. They were Saudi Arabian MPs and were here as students and as representatives of their government. It was very interesting having three Saudi Arabian MPs as classmates. IMO, the terrorist have been a blight, but we cannot blame all Arabs for the actions of a few crazies. We have had a good relationship with the Saudi Arabians for many years – and I hope that it can be nurtured, maintained and fully developed in the coming years. It is an excellent idea to have GWU provide a DL program for the Saudi Arabians. The Saudi Arabians are our allies and we should court their political friendship in every way possible.
Re: The Saudi Arabians are good people For years, the Saudi royal family financed the people who want to fly our airliners into our skyscrapers. With friends like that.......... Bruce
Allies? With Allies like the Saudi's, and France who needs enemies. Let's see 9/11, funding Hamas, funding other terrorist, teaching in their schools to hate the infidels who is anybody who disagrees with their religion. The MP's and some others may be nice people, but if the family is in charge of S.A. then I would not consider them allies. When I see them be agressive about terrorism, and militant islam then I will see them as allies. If that ever happens we should still keep one focused on our back!
Saudi Arabia and friendship There is no question that significant portions of the ruling class in Saudi Arabia are not our friends. What that percentage is I do not know, but I do know that they have supported the United States in most of our activities in the middle east in recent years. Additionally, you may want to think carefully before you wish they would go away. The rulers of Saudi Arabia are moderate compared to those that would take their place. Additionally, by grouping the leaders of a country into one class (which I admittedly did above) you are ignoring that there are differences within their government. If the U.S. government was thought of as one amorphous group who would opponents of our government point at to represent “the United States”? Do you want Ted Kennedy, Carol Mosely Brawn, Pat Robertson, Charleston Heston to be the “our” representative?
Jallen: I am not fans of any that you mentioned except for maybe Heston (as an actor), but none of our elected leaders encourage or insight the kind of hatred that comes from that part of the world. They hate us because they were taught to hate us from birth. They are taught that women are basically property of their men. This country does so much for that part of the world, exspecially the Saudi's, and look what we get in return. They are constantly working against us, undermining every effort we make.
Re: Saudi Arabia and friendship Exactly!!! Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let us cultivate our ties with the moderate Saudi Arabians. It is in our own political best interest to do so. For the most part, the Saudi Arabians have supported the U.S. Can we say the same about the surrounding countries, with the exception of Kuwait? It is politically unwise to demonize the Saudi Arabians. I hope that the Saudi Arabians don't judge the Americans based upon the narrow views of Ted Kennedy, Pat Robertson, et al. Instead of "going to extreme political views," (which is exactly what the religious terrorist have done) we need to cultivate the few political allies that we have in the Middle Easy -- and Saudi Arabia is in that category, like it or not. Instead of lumping all Arabs together (based upon the actions of the terrorists) and burning all of our political bridges, we need to cultivate our ties with the educated moderates in Saudi Arabia -- which brings us back to the GWU issue.
terrorist You may be right about the moderates, but all the others hate us and want to kill us just because we do not worship allah. I may not be politcally correct here, but I wish they would all pick a country, and have a very large terrorist convention. Then, we can turn it into a parking lot where nothing will grow in my kids lifetime, so he will not have to worry about those idiots! My humble opinion of course.
Islam has little to do with Arab Anti-Americanism. The subject was discussed during Alllearn.org Forum on Iraq II: "Charles Fout Dr. Dallal- Many people, including several participating in todays discussion, attribute Arab anti-Americanism to U.S. support of Israel. However, others (Barry Rubin, The Real Roots of Arab Anti-Americanism, Foreign Affairs, Nov/Dec 2002) suggest that U.S. support of Israel has little to nothing to do with Arab hatred of the U.S. Mr. Rubin puts forth the theory that oppressive regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, encourage anti-Americanism as a way of deflecting their own failure to respond to demands for democracy, human rights, higher standards of living and less corruption and incompetence in government. Please comment." Of course, the blame America first crowd will ...... well, blame America first. "Ahmad Dallal These oppressive regimes are often closely allied to the US and depend on the US for their very survival. So anti-Americanism is partly a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also the role the US have played in thwarting democraticv change int he ME." http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=69923#post69923
no justification I really do not care why they hate us, and want to kill us. There is no justification for terrorism, or 9/11. America may not be perfect in our foreign policy or domestic society, but it is by far the best!
There are lots of things about the Islamic world that I don't like one bit. Of course, I could say similar things about Christianity. And there are good things about the Islamic world (and about Christianity) as well. But the problem goes beyond that. Whether we like them or not, they are still going to be there, and the question becomes how we should respond to the fact that the planet has not been happily remade in our Western image and values. (Assuming we could ever agree on what those are.) We can try throwing out insults. Perhaps if we express our revulsion against Arabs and Muslims one more time, we can insult them into converting to Christianity and becoming conservative Republicans. (The liberals would say that they're almost there already.) Or we can try to come to terms with the fact that we are not going to agree on many of the fundamental issues that divide us, not during our lifetimes at least, and try to promote those forces and tendencies among them that we can most productively coexist with. While, I suppose, they are doing much the same thing with us. Frankly, that's how I deal with some of you.
