Saudi
Arabia will no longer
kowtow to America
By
Jonathan
Power
August 23, 2002
LONDON - The trillion dollar lawsuit filed in America
against Saudi citizens by relatives of the September 11th
attack is but the latest manifestation of a sharply
deteriorating relationship with America's 35 year old
Middle East ally, a downward path that at best will end
in tears for an already weakening dollar and, at worst, a
re-alignment of the major Arab regimes, once friendly to
Washington, to something more akin to an adversary
position.
The timing of the lawsuit could not have been worse
coming as it does only days after a high-level Pentagon
discussion paper was leaked that accused Saudi Arabia of
being "the kernel of evil" and counselled the
Administration to countenance the seizing of Saudi
financial assets. Although the White House later sought
to distance itself from the paper it was not until after
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, questioned by the
press, refused to take the opportunity to pour immediate
cold water over it. If the Saudi authorities don't follow
the moves made this week by private Saudi individuals and
institutions and rather quickly move their U.S.
investments and savings into the Euro zone they may find
that, if tensions rise to boiling point over the planned
invasion of Iraq and the deteriorating situation in
Palestine, they may wake up one morning and find their
money gone.
Ever since September 11th the pressures from the U.S.
have been mounting. Former CIA director James Woolsey
said publically that Saudi Arabia "deserves a very large
part of the blame for September 11th. I do not think we
should do anything more with them right now than be
cordial". The main U.S. media have kept up a constant
barrage of criticism. For example, reporting that the
Saudis had refused to arrest any of the suspects
identified by the U.S. government and that Saudi Arabia
had refused to allow America use of its military
facilities for the Afghanistan campaign. Such accusations
have been shown to be false (although it is certainly
true that the Saudis have made it clear that the U.S.
will not be allowed to use its Saudi base for launching a
new war against Iraq.)
American public opinion has never had a particularly
good image of Saudi Arabia, blaming it for the oil price
revolution of 1973-74. Yet even though, before the talk
of toppling Saddam Hussein gathered pace, oil prices in
real terms were below the level that preceded 1973,
popular opinion resents what it still believes is the
Saudi lock on high oil prices. It doesn't take much for
even quite sophisticated Americans to convince themselves
that the time for friendship and the turning of a blind
eye to Saudi Arabia's attachment to Islamic
fundamentalism and the wild men who spring from it is
over, and that if the chips go down in the Middle East
Saudi Arabia should be switched on the strategic
chessboard from ally to enemy.
There is a grave danger of America misgauging the
resilience of Saudi society. There is a lot wrong with
Saudi Arabia for sure - not just the private charitable
funding of violent prone Islamic causes including Al
Qaeda (but the Americans should know a lot about that
from their long tolerance of private American funding of
such disparate causes as the IRA of Northern Ireland, the
Contras of Nicaragua and even the Serbs of ex
Yugoslavia). It is hard to put a gloss on the servile
status of women and immigrant workers, a system of
justice that tolerates torture, not to mention the lack
of democracy.
Yet at the end of the day Saudi rule is relatively
benign. Compared with other oil states like Iraq, Iran,
Nigeria, Algeria and Venezuela that have so grossly
misused their oil wealth, the ruling princes of Saudi
Arabia have channelled their resources remarkably well -
into prosperous cities, efficient communications and
transportation, bustling universities and factories and,
above all, a sense of order. There have been over 75
years of relative stability in Saudi Arabia and no other
country in the region can equal that. In a new study just
published by the London-based International Institute for
Strategic Studies, "Saudi Arabia and the Illusion of
Security" E.J. Peterson describes the regime as
"patriarchal rather than tyrannical". "Far from opposing
change and denying basic rights to its citizens", he
writes "the government has promoted steady economic and
social change- albeit at a measured pace, so as to keep a
workable balance between traditionalist and modernists."
The government is adept at using the small space it has
been bequeathed for forward momentum. The kingdom has no
choice but to operate in this careful way since the
regime itself and a majority of its people remain deeply
attached to Wahabism, a conservative, puritanical,
expression of Islam, that owes its central position in
Saudi political life to the eighteenth century alliance
fashioned between the religious reformer Mohammad Ibn
Abdul Wahhab and the Al Saud family. Even today the ulama
(religious scholars) are consulted before the government
makes any significant decisions that involve social
innovation.
The House of Saud is likely to remain one of the main
pillars of Middle Eastern society for as far as one can
see ahead. To argue that American military and economic
muscle could make it kowtow would be for America to shoot
itself not in the foot but in both legs as far as being
able to have further influence in the Arab world.
Engagement, tolerance and understanding are words that
Washington needs to re-acquaint itself with. Saudi Arabia
undoubtedly is going forward into the modern world, at
its own measured pace. It is just that it has chosen a
different path than America's.
I can be reached by phone +44
7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Copyright © 2002 By
JONATHAN POWER
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"Like
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