How to keep Arabia stable!

Submitted by #453: Pipes on the Saudi civil war in "The Australian" (United States), May 31, 2004 at 14:15

Dr. Daniel Pipes is brilliant in his narration of the history of the Saudi kingdom. However we need to add some important facts that are missing and are crucial to the understanding of the situation in the Middle East and South Asia.

The Saudi state was a creation of Lawrence of Arabia and the British Colonialists who were interested in the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of small and impotent states in the Middle East. The non-representative regimes in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait etc. kept the peninsula fractured so as not to offer any resistance to the British Empire. Were it not for the brave actions of the USA, the Suez Canal would still be British.

Nascent Wahabbism started as a purely reform movement reacting against he excesses of grave worship and idolatrous influences that were creeping into Islam. It's political aspects have many dimensions and Wahabbism has as wide a spectrum as Arabs and Muslims in general. Today it is Arabia's Frankenstein's monster similar to the others that were created in Lebanon and Afghanistan. Today the RADICAL parts of this movement threaten its progenerator, the Saudi regime, all moderate Muslims as well as foreign\Western interests in Arabia and around the world. We need to help the Saudis to keep a lid on this radicalism.

The government of Saudi Arabia was propped up and maintained by successive American Governments who feared socialist, Pro-Soviet pan-Arabism. This was specially true during the Cold War when the Saudi regime was propped up as a counter weight to pro-Soviet stance of Nasser, Assad and the ruler of Iraq, Hassan Al Baqar (predecessor of Saddam Husain) etc. For those with selective amnesia, we must remember that Iraq used to be part of CENT (The NATO of Western Asia)

If the rise of the Talibaan was due to Saudi Arabia, then surely it was midwifed by the CIA who sought to bring stability to a war torn Afghanistan to diminish the rising influence of a Russia in that part of the world. Bin Laden and others got prominence during the Cold War when they were part of the American effort to destroy the USSR. This is eloquently described by the Texas Congressman in "Charlie's War". The Talibaan threaten it's progenerator, the Saudi regime as much as Hamas threatens it's progenerator, Israel. These Frankenstein's monsters are like the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad created as counterweights to the PLO who at one time claimed to be the "sole" representatives of the Palestinians.

Muslims in Pakistan, Indonesia and many parts of Arabia are pro-Western and anti-radical. 2 Million Muslim died fighting the cold war FOR America and the West, and the much-maligned Wahabism and the Saudis were the ones that were funding the arms with the CIA so that the USSR would bleed to death in Afghanistan. At the time, these were the heroes and were called the "mujihideen" and were invited to the White House

The Saudi Government was instrumental in keeping the price low, in the heyday of OPEC, when OPEC wanted to raise it to $40 per gallon in 1973!. This month's increase in Saudi Oil production by 28% is an attempt to prove to the Americans that the price hike on American pumps is an American refining problem not a Saudi/OPEC supply problem.

The destruction of the Saudi regime or the dissolution of Saudi Arabia would unleash forces that we will not be able to control. This would be bad for the USA, bad for the Middle East, bad for Israel and bad for the World. The world cannot afford another Iraq type quagmire. Iranian influence would expand to the Shia population in Arabia and have catastrophic results for the Middle East's fragile balancing act. A fractured Arabia, divided between Shia, and Sunnis, Wahabbis and moderates will spell destruction of the Western economic system, as we know it. Stability on the Saudi peninsula with slow creeping democracy is in the best interests of America, Israel and the world.

The question today is, how can we quickly get the mad Muslims in Saudi and other places to support the USA, as they did in the cold war. Demonizing Saudi Arabia is not the answer. I agree with the assessment of Dr. Pipes that we need a benevolent dictator in Iraq to keep it stable. We already have that on the Saudi Peninsula. Keeping the peninsula stable is the interest of the United Sates, Israel and the Western world. Changing the regime from within with gentle pressure is the optimal solution.


Moin Ansari
President
AMERICAN JEWISH MUSLIM ALLIANCE:
Dialogue between the physical & spiritual "progeny" of Abraham
AJMA is an IRS registered 503(c) 3 non-profit organization Tax ID 20-0111384.

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