Spectator article on house of saud

Clintons Cat

If you can get past the invective of the opening and ending and middle paragraphs the article raises a few intresting points,

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old&section=current&issue=2002-03-09&id=1648

Instead of presenting Prince Abdullah with Israeli–Palestinian peace proposals, Americans ought to be handing him US–Saudi peace proposals: clean up your own education system and stop destabilising Asian Muslim culture,<snip>


If the West has a medium-term aim in the Middle East, it ought to be the evolution of Arabic Islam into something closer to the more moderate Muslim temperament of Turkey or Bangladesh. I know, I know, all these things are relative, but even that modest goal is unattainable under the House of Saud. The royal family derives such legitimacy as it has from its role as the guardian and promoter of Wahhabism. It is, therefore, the ideological font of militant Islamism

John O’Sullivan, former editor of National Review, wrote recently that ‘reforming the House of Saud will be a formidable and subtle task. But it offers a great deal more hope for everyone than blithely burning it down.’ I disagree. Reforming the House of Saud is all but impossible. Lavish economic engagement with the West has only entrenched it more firmly in its barbarism. ‘Stability’ means letting layabout princes use Western oil revenues to seduce their people into anti-Western nihilism. On the other hand, blithely burning it down offers quite a bit of hope, given that no likely replacement would provide the ideological succour to the Islamakazis that Saud-endorsed Wahhabism does.

Did anyone else see the C4 dispatches special on saudi arabia?
I was a little disapointed with the quality in parts.

Sand

Interesting article. However I dont see the US actually going head to head with the Saudis. It relies too much on them for oil. The rest of the arab OPEC members would also go for price hikes if not sanctions. And whose to say Israel wouldnt get involved. All in all, seems like a hell of a lot of trouble. Probably better for them to disengage from Saudi Arabia as it currently stands whilst offering support to the pro -western factions (if any) that exsist inside it. Saudia Arabia is most certainly not a friend of the west, and thus should not be treated as one.

Maybe Bush the oil baron might be persuaded to look for alternative fuels, given the weakness he has facing the Saudis:)